Soybean transcription terminators and use in expression of transgenic genes in plants

ABSTRACT

Five novel plant transcription terminators MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 are isolated from soybean and their functions in the regulation of RNA transcription and processing in plants are described.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/073,389, filed Jun. 18, 2008, the entire content of which is herein incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to novel plant transcription terminators MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 isolated from soybean and their use in the regulation of gene expression in plants.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Recent advances in plant genetic engineering have opened new doors to engineer plants with improved characteristics or traits, such as plant disease resistance, insect resistance, drought tolerance, extreme temperature tolerance, herbicidal resistance, yield improvement, improvement of the nutritional quality of the edible portions of the plant, and enhanced stability or shelf-life of the ultimate consumer product obtained from the plants. Thus, a desired gene (or genes) with the molecular function to impart different or improved characteristics or qualities, can be incorporated into a plant's genome. The newly integrated gene (or genes) coding sequence can then be expressed in the plant cell to exhibit the desired new trait or characteristic. It is important that appropriate regulatory signals be present in proper configurations in order to obtain expression of the newly inserted gene coding sequence in the plant cell. These regulatory signals typically include a promoter region, a 5′ non-translated leader sequence, and a 3′ transcription termination/polyadenylation sequence.

A promoter is a non-coding genomic DNA sequence, usually upstream (5′) to the relevant coding sequence, to which RNA polymerase binds before initiating transcription. This binding aligns the RNA polymerase so that transcription will initiate at a specific transcription initiation site. The insertion of promoter sequences in recombinant DNA constructs dictates when and where in the plant the introduced DNA sequences will be expressed.

In contrast, sequences located downstream (3′) to the relevant coding sequence, i.e. transcription terminators, appear to control quantitative levels of expression (Ali and Taylor, Plant Mol. Biol. 46:251-61 (2001)). Transcription terminators function to stop transcription and also have important effects on the processing and degradation of RNA strands generated by transcription. In recombinant DNA constructs, terminators are typically inserted immediately after the 3′-end of the translated region of a gene of interest.

Recombinant DNA constructs may contain more than one gene cassette, each consisting of a promoter, gene of interest, and a terminator. If RNA transcription is not terminated effectively, the transcription of one gene cassette may interfere with the expression of a gene in another cassette. Similarly, unwanted transcription of trait-unrelated (downstream) sequences may interfere with trait performance. Weak terminators, for example, can generate read-through, thereby affecting the expression of genes located in neighboring expression cassettes (Padidam and Cao, Biotechniques 31:328-30, 332-4 (2001)). However, the use of appropriate transcription terminators in recombinant DNA constructs can minimize read-through into downstream sequences (e.g., other expression cassettes) and allow more efficient recycling of RNA polymerase II, thereby improving gene expression.

Often, the same transcription termination sequence is used multiple times in one transgenic organism, sometimes resulting in unintended silencing. Thus, there is a demand for alternative transcription termination sequences. Unfortunately, the prediction of functional, efficient transcription termination sequences by bioinformatics is difficult since virtually no conserved sequences exist to allow for such a prediction. Thus, there is an ongoing interest in the isolation of novel terminators that are capable of controlling transcription termination and that improve gene expression.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a first embodiment, this invention concerns a terminator, wherein said terminator comprises the nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128; a full-length complement of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128; or a nucleotide sequence having at least 90% sequence identity, based on the BLASTN method of alignment, when compared to the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128, or a full-length complement thereof.

In a second embodiment, the invention concerns a terminator, wherein said terminator is a nucleotide sequence comprising a fragment of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128; a full-length complement of a fragment of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128; or a nucleotide sequence having at least 90% sequence identity, based on the BLASTN method of alignment, when compared to the fragment of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128, or a full-length complement thereof.

In a third embodiment, this invention concerns a recombinant DNA construct comprising a promoter, at least one heterologous nucleic acid fragment, and the terminator of the invention, wherein the promoter, heterologous nucleic acid fragment, and terminator are operably linked.

In a fourth embodiment, this invention concerns a vector, cell, plant, or seed comprising a recombinant DNA construct of the present disclosure.

In a fifth embodiment, this invention concerns plants comprising this recombinant DNA construct and seeds obtained from such plants.

In a sixth embodiment, this invention concerns a method of expressing at least one heterologous nucleic acid fragment in a plant cell which comprises:

-   -   (a) transforming a plant cell with the recombinant DNA construct         described above;     -   (b) growing fertile mature plants from the transformed plant         cell of step (a);     -   (c) selecting plants containing the transformed plant cell         wherein the heterologous nucleic acid fragment is expressed.

In a seventh embodiment, this invention concerns a method of altering a marketable plant trait. The marketable plant trait concerns genes and proteins involved in disease resistance, herbicide resistance, insect resistance, carbohydrate metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, plant development, plant growth regulation, yield improvement, drought resistance, cold resistance, heat resistance, and salt resistance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEQUENCES AND DRAWINGS

The invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed descriptions, the drawings, and the sequence descriptions that form a part of this application. The Sequence Listing contains the one letter code for nucleotide sequence characters and the three letter codes for amino acids as defined in conformity with the IUPAC-IUBMB standards described in Nucleic Acids Research 13:3021-3030 (1985) and in the Biochemical Journal 219 (No. 2): 345-373 (1984), which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. The symbols and format used for nucleotide and amino acid sequence data comply with the rules set forth in 37 C.F.R. §1.822.

SEQ ID NO:1 is the nucleotide sequence of the soybean MYB2 terminator cloned into DNA construct QC339.

SEQ ID NO:2 is the nucleotide sequence of the soybean KTI1 terminator cloned into DNA construct QC340.

SEQ ID NO:3 is the nucleotide sequence of the soybean PIP1 terminator cloned into DNA construct QC350.

SEQ ID NO:4 is the nucleotide sequence of the soybean EF1A2 terminator cloned into DNA construct QC351.

SEQ ID NO:5 is the nucleotide sequence of the soybean MTH1 terminator cloned into DNA construct QC352.

SEQ ID NO:6 is the 1061 bp nucleotide sequence of the putative soybean transcription factor MYB2 gene PSO323364. Nucleotides 1 to 144 represent 5′ untranslated sequence, while the coding sequence is found at nucleotides 145 to 756, with the translation initiation codon at nucleotides 145 to 147 and the termination codon at nucleotides 757 to 759. Nucleotides 757 to 1061 are part of the 3′ untranslated sequence.

SEQ ID NO:7 is the 882 bp nucleotide sequence of the putative soybean Kunitz trypsin inhibitor KTI1 gene PSO400362. Nucleotides 1 to 30 represent 5′ untranslated sequence, while the coding sequence is found at nucleotides 31 to 639, with the translation initiation codon at nucleotides 31 to 33 and the termination codon at nucleotides 640 to 642. Nucleotides 640 to 882 are part of the 3′ untranslated sequence.

SEQ ID NO:8 is the 1247 bp nucleotide sequence of the putative soybean aquaporin protein PIP1 gene PSO332986. Nucleotides 1 to 67 represent 5′ untranslated sequence, while the coding sequence is found at nucleotides 68 to 934, with the translation initiation codon at nucleotides 68 to 70 and the termination codon at nucleotides 935 to 937. Nucleotides 935 to 1247 are part of the 3′ untranslated sequence.

SEQ ID NO:9 is the 1772 bp nucleotide sequence of the putative soybean translation elongation factor EF1 alpha homolog (EF1A2) gene PSO333268. Nucleotides 1 to 86 represent 5′ untranslated sequence, while the coding sequence is found at nucleotides 87 to 1427, with the translation initiation codon at nucleotides 87 to 89 and the termination codon at nucleotides 1428 to 1430. Nucleotides 1428 to 1772 are part of the 3′ untranslated sequence.

SEQ ID NO:10 is the 574 bp nucleotide sequence of the putative soybean type 2 metallothionein MTH1 gene PSO333209. Nucleotides 1 to 78 represent 5′ untranslated sequence, while the coding sequence is found at nucleotides 79 to 315, with the translation initiation codon at nucleotides 79 to 81 and the termination codon at nucleotides 316 to 318. Nucleotides 316 to 574 are part of the 3′ untranslated sequence.

SEQ ID NO:11 is the predicted amino acid sequence of the protein encoded by the putative soybean transcription factor MYB2 gene PSO323364 (SEQ ID NO:6).

SEQ ID NO:12 is the predicted amino acid sequence of the protein encoded by the putative soybean Kunitz trypsin inhibitor KTI1 gene PSO400362 (SEQ ID NO:7).

SEQ ID NO:13 is the predicted amino acid sequence of the protein encoded by the putative soybean aquaporin protein PIP1 gene PSO332986 (SEQ ID NO:8).

SEQ ID NO:14 is the predicted amino acid sequence of the protein encoded by the putative soybean translation elongation factor EF1 alpha homolog (EF1A2) gene PSO333268 (SEQ ID NO:9).

SEQ ID NO:15 is the predicted amino acid sequence of the protein encoded by the putative soybean type 2 metallothionein MTH1 gene PSO333209 (SEQ ID NO:10).

SEQ ID NO:16 is the MPSS tag sequence specific to the PSO323364 gene.

SEQ ID NO:17 is the MPSS tag sequence specific to the PSO400362 gene.

SEQ ID NO:18 is the MPSS tag sequence specific to the PSO332986 gene.

SEQ ID NO:19 is the MPSS tag sequence specific to the PSO333268 gene.

SEQ ID NO:20 is the sense primer ATPS-87F for qRT-PCR of the endogenous control gene ATP sulfurylase (ATPS).

SEQ ID NO:21 is the antisense primer ATPS-161R for qRT-PCR of the endogenous control gene ATPS.

SEQ ID NO:22 is the sense primer PSO323364F for qRT-PCR analysis of the PSO323364 gene.

SEQ ID NO:23 is the antisense primer PSO323364R for qRT-PCR analysis of the PSO323364 gene.

SEQ ID NO:24 is the sense primer PSO400362F for qRT-PCR analysis of the PSO400362 gene.

SEQ ID NO:25 is the antisense primer PSO400362R for qRT-PCR analysis of the PSO400362 gene.

SEQ ID NO:26 is the sense primer PSO332986F for qRT-PCR analysis of the PSO332986 gene.

SEQ ID NO:27 is the antisense primer PSO332986R for qRT-PCR analysis of the PSO332986 gene.

SEQ ID NO:28 is the sense primer PSO333268F for qRT-PCR analysis of the PSO333268 gene.

SEQ ID NO:29 is the antisense primer PSO333268R for qRT-PCR analysis of the PSO333268 gene.

SEQ ID NO:30 is the sense primer PSO333209F for qRT-PCR analysis of the PSO333209 gene.

SEQ ID NO:31 is the antisense primer PSO333209R for qRT-PCR analysis of the PSO333209 gene.

SEQ ID NO:32 is the 5232 bp sequence of the DNA construct QC315.

SEQ ID NO:33 is the 5492 bp sequence of the DNA construct QC327.

SEQ ID NO:34 is the 8409 bp sequence of the DNA construct QC324i.

SEQ ID NO:35 is the 10017 bp sequence of the DNA construct QC339.

SEQ ID NO:36 is the 10031 bp sequence of the DNA construct QC340.

SEQ ID NO:37 is the 9995 bp sequence of the DNA construct QC350.

SEQ ID NO:38 is the 9922 bp sequence of the DNA construct QC351.

SEQ ID NO:39 is the 9939 bp sequence of the DNA construct QC352.

SEQ ID NO:40 is the oligonucleotide primer PSO323364Sac used as a sense primer in the PCR amplification of the MYB2 terminator (PSO323364) from the soybean genome. A Sacl recognition site (GAGCTC) was added for subsequent cloning.

SEQ ID NO:41 is the oligonucleotide primer PSO323364Eco used as an antisense primer in the PCR amplification of the MYB2 terminator (PSO323364) from the soybean genome. An EcoRI recognition site (GAATTC) was added for subsequent cloning.

SEQ ID NO:42 is the oligonucleotide primer PSO400362Sac used as a sense primer in the PCR amplification of the KTI1 terminator (PSO400362) from the soybean genome. A Sacl recognition site (GAGCTC) was added for subsequent cloning.

SEQ ID NO:43 is the oligonucleotide primer PSO400362Eco used as an antisense primer in the PCR amplification of the KTI1 terminator (PSO400362) from the soybean genome. An EcoRI recognition site (GAATTC) was added for subsequent cloning.

SEQ ID NO:44 is the oligonucleotide primer PSO332986Sac used as a sense primer in the PCR amplification of the PIP1 terminator (PSO332986) from the soybean genome. A Sacl recognition site (GAGCTC) was added for subsequent cloning.

SEQ ID NO:45 is the oligonucleotide primer PSO332986Eco used as an antisense primer in the PCR amplification of the PIP1 terminator (PSO332986) from the soybean genome. An EcoRI recognition site (GAATTC) was added for subsequent cloning.

SEQ ID NO:46 is the oligonucleotide primer PSO333268Sac used as a sense primer in the PCR amplification of the EF1A2 terminator (PSO333268) from the soybean genome. A Sacl recognition site (GAGCTC) was added for subsequent cloning.

SEQ ID NO:47 is the oligonucleotide primer PSO333268Eco used as an antisense primer in the PCR amplification of the EF1A2 terminator (PSO333268) from the soybean genome. An EcoRI recognition site (GAATTC) was added for subsequent cloning.

SEQ ID NO:48 is the oligonucleotide primer PSO333209Sac used as a sense primer in the PCR amplification of the MTH1 terminator (PSO333209) from the soybean genome. A Sacl recognition site (GAGCTC) was added for subsequent cloning.

SEQ ID NO:49 is the oligonucleotide primer PSO333209Eco used as an antisense primer in the PCR amplification of the MTH1 terminator (PSO333209) from the soybean genome. An EcoRI recognition site (GAATTC) was added for subsequent cloning.

SEQ ID NO:50 is the antisense oligo dT primer 3UTR-1 used to synthesize first strand cDNA from polyadenylated mRNA. A non-specific tail sequence included on the 5′ end of the primer will be used as a priming site for subsequent PCR.

SEQ ID NO:51 is the antisense primer 3UTR-2, which is specific to the tail sequence in primer 3UTR-1.

SEQ ID NO:52 is the antisense primer 3UTR-3, which is specific to a region downstream of terminators MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 in their respective constructs QC339, QC340, QC350, QC351, and QC352.

SEQ ID NO:53 is the sense primer SAMS-L, which is specific to an S-adenosylmethionine synthetase (SAMS) gene and is used in a diagnostic PCR to check for soybean genomic DNA presence in total RNA or cDNA.

SEQ ID NO:54 is the antisense primer SAMS-L2, which is specific to an S-adenosylmethionine synthetase (SAMS) gene and is used in a diagnostic PCR to check for soybean genomic DNA presence in total RNA or cDNA.

SEQ ID NO:55 is the antisense primer SAMS-A1, which is specific to the SAMS promoter used in constructs QC339, QC340, QC350, QC351, and QC352.

SEQ ID NO:56 is the antisense primer SAMS-A2, which is specific to the SAMS promoter.

SEQ ID NO:57 is the sense primer YFP-1, which is specific to the ZS-YELLOW1 N1 (YFP) gene used in constructs QC339, QC340, QC350, QC351, and QC352.

SEQ ID NO:58 is the antisense primer YFP-2, which is specific to the YFP gene.

SEQ ID NO:59 is the sense primer YFP-3, which is specific to the YFP gene.

SEQ ID NO:60 is the antisense primer YFP-A, which is specific to the YFP gene.

SEQ ID NO:61 is the sense primer UBQ-S2, which is specific to the soybean UBQ promoter used in constructs QC339, QC340, QC350, QC351, and QC352.

SEQ ID NO:62 is the sense primer SAMS-48F used in quantitative PCR analysis of SAMS:ALS transgene copy numbers.

SEQ ID NO:63 is the FAM labeled (fluorescein) DNA probe SAMS-88T used in quantitative PCR analysis of SAMS:ALS transgene copy numbers.

SEQ ID NO:64 is the antisense primer SAMS-134R used in quantitative PCR analysis of SAMS:ALS transgene copy numbers.

SEQ ID NO:65 is the sense primer YFP-67F used in quantitative PCR analysis of YFP transgene copy numbers.

SEQ ID NO:66 is the FAM labeled (fluorescein) DNA probe YFP-88T used in quantitative PCR analysis of YFP transgene copy numbers.

SEQ ID NO:67 is the antisense primer YFP-130R used in quantitative PCR analysis of YFP transgene copy numbers.

SEQ ID NO:68 is the sense primer HSP-F1 used as an endogenous control gene primer HSP-F1 in quantitative PCR analysis of transgene copy numbers.

SEQ ID NO:69 is the VIC-labeled DNA probe HSP used as an endogenous control gene probe in quantitative PCR analysis of transgene copy numbers.

SEQ ID NO:70 is the antisense primer HSP-R1 used as an endogenous control gene primer in quantitative PCR analysis of transgene copy numbers.

SEQ ID NO:71 is the sense primer SamsPro-F used in quantitative RT-PCR analysis of SAMS promoter transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:72 is the FAM-labeled (fluorescein) DNA MGB probe SamsPro-T used in quantitative RT-PCR analysis of SAMS promoter transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:73 is the antisense primer SamsPro-R used in quantitative RT-PCR analysis of SAMS promoter transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:74 is the sense primer YFP-139F used in quantitative RT-PCR analysis of YFP transgene transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:75 is the FAM-labeled (fluorescein) DNA MGB probe YFP-160T used in quantitative RT-PCR analysis of YFP transgene transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:76 is the antisense primer YFP-195R used in quantitative RT-PCR analysis of YFP transgene transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:77 is the sense primer PSO323364S1 used for RT-PCR analysis of endogenous gene PSO323364 transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:78 is the antisense primer PSO323364R1 used for RT-PCR analysis of endogenous gene PSO323364 transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:79 is the sense primer PSO400362S1 used for RT-PCR analysis of endogenous gene PSO400362 transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:80 is the antisense primer PSO400362R1 used for RT-PCR analysis of endogenous gene PSO400362 transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:81 is the sense primer PSO332982F used for RT-PCR analysis of endogenous gene PSO332986 transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:82 is the antisense primer PSO332986JK-A used for RT-PCR analysis of endogenous gene PSO332986 transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:83 is the sense primer PSO333268F used for RT-PCR analysis of endogenous gene PSO333268 transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:84 is the antisense primer PSO333268R used for RT-PCR analysis of endogenous gene PSO333268 transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:85 is the sense primer PSO333209F used for RT-PCR analysis of endogenous gene PSO333209 transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:86 is the antisense primer PSO333209JK-A used for RT-PCR analysis of endogenous gene PSO333209 transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:87 is the recombination site attL1 sequence in the Gateway cloning system (Invitrogen).

SEQ ID NO:88 is the recombination site attL2 sequence in the Gateway cloning system (Invitrogen).

SEQ ID NO:89 is the recombination site attR1 sequence in the Gateway cloning system (Invitrogen).

SEQ ID NO:90 is the recombination site attR2 sequence in the Gateway cloning system (Invitrogen).

SEQ ID NO:91 is the recombination site attB1 sequence in the Gateway cloning system (Invitrogen).

SEQ ID NO:92 is the recombination site attB2 sequence in the Gateway cloning system (Invitrogen).

SEQ ID NO:93 is the VIC-labeled (fluorescein) DNA MGB probe ATPS-117T used as the endogenous control in quantitative RT-PCR analysis of YFP and SAMS promoter transcripts.

SEQ ID NO:94 is the sequence of primer PSO323364UTR2.

SEQ ID NO:95 is the sequence of primer PSO323364UTR3.

SEQ ID NO:96 is the sequence of primer PSO323364UTR4.

SEQ ID NO:97 is the sequence of primer PSO323364UTR5.

SEQ ID NO:98 is the sequence of primer PSO323364UTR6.

SEQ ID NO:99 is the sequence of primer PSO323364UTR7.

SEQ ID NO:100 is the sequence of primer PSO400362UTR2.

SEQ ID NO:101 is the sequence of primer PSO400362UTR3.

SEQ ID NO:102 is the sequence of primer PSO400362UTR4.

SEQ ID NO:103 is the sequence of primer PSO400362UTR5.

SEQ ID NO:104 is the sequence of primer PSO400362UTR6.

SEQ ID NO:105 is the sequence of primer PSO400362UTR7.

SEQ ID NO:106 is the sequence of primer PSO332986UTR2.

SEQ ID NO:107 is the sequence of primer PSO332986UTR3.

SEQ ID NO:108 is the sequence of primer PSO332986UTR4.

SEQ ID NO:109 is the sequence of primer PSO332986UTR5.

SEQ ID NO:110 is the sequence of primer PSO332986UTR6.

SEQ ID NO:111 is the sequence of primer PSO332986UTR7.

SEQ ID NO:112 is the sequence of primer PSO333268UTR2.

SEQ ID NO:113 is the sequence of primer PSO333268UTR3.

SEQ ID NO:114 is the sequence of primer PSO333268UTR4.

SEQ ID NO:115 is the sequence of primer PSO333268UTR5.

SEQ ID NO:116 is the sequence of primer PSO333268UTR6.

SEQ ID NO:117 is the sequence of primer PSO333268UTR7.

SEQ ID NO:118 is the sequence of primer PSO333209UTR2.

SEQ ID NO:119 is the sequence of primer PSO333209UTR3.

SEQ ID NO:120 is the sequence of primer PSO333209UTR4.

SEQ ID NO:121 is the sequence of primer PSO333209UTR5.

SEQ ID NO:122 is the sequence of primer PSO333209UTR6.

SEQ ID NO:123 is the sequence of primer PSO333209UTR7.

SEQ ID NO:124 is the nucleotide sequence of the PSO323364 MYB2L terminator.

SEQ ID NO:125 is the nucleotide sequence of the PSO400362 KTI1L terminator.

SEQ ID NO:126 is the nucleotide sequence of the PSO332986 PIP1L terminator.

SEQ ID NO:127 is the nucleotide sequence of the PSO333268 EF1A2L terminator.

SEQ ID NO:128 is the nucleotide sequence of the PSO333209 MTH1L terminator.

FIG. 1 shows the logarithm of relative gene expression quantifications of five soybean genes PSO323364 (MYB2), PSO400362 (KTI1), PSO332986 (PIP1), PSO333268 (EF1A2), and PSO333209 (MTH1) in 14 different soybean tissues by quantitative RT-PCR. The gene expression profiles indicate that MYB2 is predominately expressed in flowers; KTI1 is predominately expressed in developing seeds; and PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 are expressed similarly in all evaluated tissues.

FIG. 2 shows the maps of plasmids A) QC315, B) QC327, C) QC324i, and D) QC339. QC327 was made from QC315 by replacing the NOS terminator in QC315 with the MYB2 terminator. The UBQ:YFP:MYB2 cassette in QC327 was linked to the SAMS:HRA cassette in QC324i to make the final construct QC339.

FIG. 3 shows the maps of the following transformation ready constructs: A) QC340 for the KTI1 terminator, B) QC350 for the PIP1 terminator, C) QC351 for the EF1A2 terminator, and D) QC352 for the MTH1 terminator.

FIG. 4 shows the expression of YFP (yellow fluorescent protein) in representative flower, leaf, stem, root, and pod/seed tissues of transgenic plants derived from the terminator constructs QC339 (MYB2), QC340 (KTI1), QC350 (PIP1), QC351 (EF1A2), and QC352 (MTH1).

FIG. 5 shows the map of predicted terminator transgenes in plants and the positions of primers used in RT-PCR and PCR analyses of transgene expression and RNA transcription termination.

FIG. 6 shows YFP reporter gene expression in four representative transgenic events (samples 1, 2, 3, and 4) for each of the five terminators, MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1. A) An RT-PCR check of genomic DNA contamination in RNA samples using primers SAMS-L/SAMS-L2. No genomic DNA-specific band was amplified from any of the RNA samples, and all RNA samples produced the RNA-specific band. B) A YFP expression check by RT-PCR with YFP1/YFP-2 primers. YFP transcripts were detected in all transgenic RNA samples. The two negative controls, wild type RNA (wt) and no template control (−), and the positive controls QC393 (+) and QC350 (+) all worked as expected.

FIG. 7 shows the transcription termination check by RT-PCR of the five novel terminators, MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1, and a control terminator PIN2. Wild type RNA (wt) and no template (−) were used as negative controls. QC393, QC340, QC350, QC351, and QC352 were used as positive controls (+). The same YFP-3 primer was used as the sense primer. Three primers, 3UTR-3, SAMS-A1, SAMS-A2, progressively downstream of the terminator, were used as antisense primers for three RT-PCR assays (A, B, and C, respectively). The sizes of the expected RT-PCR bands are provided. A non-specific band was amplified from wild type RNA in the first RT-PCR (A).

FIGS. 8A and 8B show the transcription termination check by RT-PCR of five endogenous genes from which the MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 terminators were cloned. Gene-specific primers used in the analysis are described in EXAMPLE 7. A) Two RT-PCR assays were performed on the following three templates: wild type plantlet RNA as the target, H₂O as the negative control, and genomic DNA as the positive control, with two sets of gene-specific primers for each terminator gene. RT-PCR-1 was specific to mRNA, while RT-PCR-2 was specific to RNA transcription read-through. Specific bands were detected with both RT-PCR assays for the three constitutive genes MTH1, EF1A2, and PIP1, but not for the flower-specific gene MYB2 or the seed-specific gene KTI1. B) Wild type flower and seed RNA were used in similar RT-PCR assays as the target templates to check the flower-specific gene MYB2 and the seed-specific gene KTI1. Specific bands were detected with both RT-PCR assays from flower RNA for the flower-specific gene MYB2 and from seed RNA for the seed-specific gene KTI1. The RT-PCR with the SAMS-L/SAMS-L2 primer set was done to check the flower RNA and seed RNA for genomic DNA contamination.

FIG. 9 shows the RT-PCR amplification of 3′ UTR from transgenic plants having the MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 terminators. The first strand cDNA was first made with an oligo dT primer 3UTR-1 by reverse transcription. Then the YFP-3/3UTR-2 primer set was used to amplify the poly (A) containing 3UTR by PCR for subsequent cloning and sequencing. No specific band was amplified from the wild type (wt) and no template (−) negative controls.

FIG. 10 shows the relative positions of the single forward primer PSO323364S1 (SEQ ID NO:77) and the seven reverse primers PSO323364Eco (SEQ ID NO:41), PSO323364UTR2 (SEQ ID NO:94), PSO323364UTR3 (SEQ ID NO:95), PSO323364UTR4 (SEQ ID NO:96), PSO323364UTR5 (SEQ ID NO:97), PSO323364UTR6 (SEQ ID NO:98), and PSO323364UTR7 (SEQ ID NO:99) specific to the RNA transcript and the genomic DNA of gene PSO323364. These primers were designed to check if the observed transcription read through of endogenous genes would stop and at what point. Primers were designed similarly for each of the other four genes.

FIGS. 11A and 11B show the results of seven RT-PCR experiments for each of the five genes, PSO323364 (MYB2), PSO400362 (KTI1), PSO332986 (PIP1), PSO333268 (EF1A2), and PSO333209 (MTH1).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The disclosure of all patents, patent applications, and publications cited herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Definitions

As used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” include plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a plant” includes a plurality of such plants, reference to “a cell” includes one or more cells and equivalents thereof known to those skilled in the art, and so forth.

The term “invention” or “present invention” as used herein is not meant to be limiting to any one specific embodiment of the invention but applies generally to any and all embodiments of the invention as described in the claims and specification.

In the context of this disclosure, a number of terms and abbreviations are used. The following definitions are provided.

“Plant” includes reference to whole plants, plant organs, plant tissues, seeds and plant cells and progeny of same. Plant cells include, without limitation, cells from seeds, suspension cultures, embryos, meristematic regions, callus tissue, leaves, roots, shoots, gametophytes, sporophytes, pollen, and microspores.

“Polymerase chain reaction” is abbreviated PCR.

“Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction” is abbreviated qRT-PCR.

“Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction” is abbreviated RT-PCR.

As used herein, “GM-MYB2 terminator” or “MYB2 terminator” refer to the 3′ untranslated sequence downstream of the coding region of the Glycine max PSO323364 gene, which encodes a putative polypeptide with significant homology to MYB transcription factors (Uimari and Strommer, Plant J. 12 (6), 1273-1284 (1997)). “GM-KTI1 terminator” or “KTI1 terminator” refer to the 3′ untranslated sequence downstream of the coding region of the Glycine max PSO400362 gene, which encodes a putative polypeptide with significant homology to Kunitz trypsin inhibitors (Jofuko and Goldberg, Plant Cell 1 (11), 1079-1093 (1989)). A “GM-PIP1 terminator” or “PIP1 terminator” refer to the 3′ untranslated sequence downstream of the coding region of the Glycine max PSO332986 gene, which encodes a putative polypeptide with significant homology to plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (Uehlein et al., Phytochemistry 68 (1), 122-129 (2007)). A “GM-EF1A2 terminator” or “EF1A2 terminator” refer to the 3′ untranslated sequence downstream of the coding region of the Glycine max PSO333268 gene, which encodes a putative polypeptide with significant homology to translation elongation factor EF-1α genes identified in various species, including soybean (Aguilar et al., Plant Mol. Biol. 17 (3), 351-360 (1991)). A “GM-MTH1 terminator” or “MTH1 terminator” refer to the 3′ untranslated sequence downstream of the coding region of the Glycine max PSO333209 gene, which encodes a putative polypeptide with significant homology to metallothionein-like proteins (Munoz et al., Physiol. Plantarum 104, 273-279 (1998)).

The terminator nucleotide sequences are useful in combinations with different promoters in regulating the expression of any heterologous nucleotide sequence in a host plant in order to alter the phenotype of a plant.

Various changes in phenotype are of interest including, but not limited to, modifying the fatty acid composition in a plant, altering the amino acid content of a plant, altering a plant's pathogen defense mechanism, and the like. These results can be achieved by providing expression of heterologous products or increased expression of endogenous products in plants. Alternatively, the results can be achieved by providing for a reduction of expression of one or more endogenous products, particularly enzymes or cofactors in the plant. These changes result in a change in phenotype of the transformed plant.

A “marketable trait”, also referred to herein as a “marketable plant trait” or “commercial trait” or “commercially desirable trait”, is any trait of importance to the commercial markets and interests of those involved in the development of the crop, wherein the marketable trait is evaluated in a fertile, mature plant. A marketable or commercial trait can include, without limitation, disease resistance, herbicide resistance, insect resistance, carbohydrate metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, plant development, plant growth regulation, yield improvement, drought resistance, cold resistance, heat resistance, and salt resistance.

Genes of interest are reflective of the commercial markets and interests of those involved in the development of the crop. Crops and markets of interest change, and as developing nations open up world markets, new crops and technologies will emerge. In addition, as our understanding of agronomic characteristics and traits, such as yield and heterosis, increases, the choice of genes for transformation will change accordingly. General categories of genes of interest include, but are not limited to, those genes involved in information, such as zinc fingers; those involved in communication, such as kinases; and those involved in housekeeping, such as heat shock proteins. More specific categories of transgenes, for example, include, but are not limited to, genes involved in important traits for agronomics, insect resistance, disease resistance, herbicide resistance, sterility, grain or seed characteristics, and commercial products. Genes of interest include, generally, those involved in oil, starch, carbohydrate, or nutrient metabolism as well as those affecting seed size, plant development, plant growth regulation, and yield improvement. Plant development and growth regulation also refer to the development and growth regulation of various parts of a plant, such as the flower, seed, root, leaf and shoot.

Other commercially desirable traits involve genes and proteins conferring cold, heat, salt, or drought resistance.

Disease and /or insect resistance genes may confer resistance to pests that significantly decrease yield, such as for example, anthracnose; soybean mosaic virus; soybean cyst nematode; root-knot nematode; the fungal agents that cause brown leaf spot, Downy mildew, purple seed stain, seed decay, and seedling diseases; and the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. Glycinea that causes bacterial blight. Genes involved in insect resistance include, for example, Bacillus thuringiensis toxic protein genes (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,366,892; 5,747,450; 5,723,756; 5,593,881; and Geiser et al., Gene 48:109 (1986)); lectins (Van Damme et al., Plant Mol. Biol. 24:825 (1994)); and the like.

Herbicide resistance traits may include genes conferring resistance to herbicides that act to inhibit the action of acetolactate synthase (ALS), in particular the sulfonylurea-type herbicides. The S4 and/or HRA mutations in the acetolactate synthase ALS gene, for example, confer resistance to the herbicide chlorsulfuron. Glyphosate acetyl transferase (GAT) is an N-acetyltransferase from Bacillus licheniformis that was optimized by gene shuffling for acetylation of the broad spectrum herbicide, glyphosate, forming the basis of a novel mechanism of glyphosate tolerance in transgenic plants (Castle et al., Science 304, 1151-1154 (2004)).

Antibiotic resistance genes include, for example, neomycin phosphotransferase (npt) and hygromycin phosphotransferase (hpt). Two neomycin phosphotransferase genes are used in selection of transformed organisms: the neomycin phosphotransferase I (nptI) gene and the neomycin phosphotransferase II (nptII) gene, the latter of which is more widely used. The nptII gene was initially isolated from the transposon Tn5 present in the bacterium strain Escherichia coli K12 (Beck et al., Gene 19, 327-36 (1982)). The gene codes for the aminoglycoside 3′-phosphotransferase (denoted aph(3′)-II or NPTII) enzyme, which inactivates by phosphorylation a range of aminoglycoside antibiotics such as kanamycin, neomycin, geneticin, and paroromycin. NPTII is widely used as a selectable marker for plant transformation. It is also used in gene expression and regulation studies in different organisms in part because N-terminal fusions can be constructed that retain enzyme activity. NPTII protein activity can be detected by enzymatic assay. In other detection methods, the modified substrates, the phosphorylated antibiotics, are detected by thin-layer chromatography, dot-blot analysis, or polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Plants such as maize, cotton, tobacco, Arabidopsis, flax, soybean, and many others have been successfully transformed with the nptII gene.

The hygromycin phosphotransferase (denoted hpt, hph, or aphIV) gene was originally derived from Escherichia coli (Gritz et al., Gene 25, 179-188 (1983)). The gene codes for hygromycin phosphotransferase (HPT), which detoxifies the aminocyclitol antibiotic hygromycin B. A large number of plants have been transformed with the hpt gene, and hygromycin B has proved very effective in the selection of a wide range of plants, including monocots. Most plants, e.g. cereals, exhibit higher sensitivity to hygromycin B than to kanamycin. Likewise, the hpt gene is used widely in selection of transformed mammalian cells. The sequence of the hpt gene has been modified for use in plant transformation. Deletions and substitutions of amino acid residues close to the carboxy (C)-terminus of the enzyme have increased the level of resistance in certain plants, such as tobacco. At the same time, the hydrophilic C-terminus of the enzyme has been maintained and may be essential for the strong activity of HPT. HPT activity can be checked using an enzymatic assay. A non-destructive callus induction test can be used to verify hygromycin resistance.

Genes involved in plant growth and development have been identified in plants. One such gene, which is involved in cytokinin biosynthesis, is isopentenyl transferase (IPT). Cytokinin plays a critical role in plant growth and development by stimulating cell division and cell differentiation (Sun et al., Plant Physiol. 131: 167-176 (2003)).

Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPK), a family of serine-threonine kinases found primarily in the plant kingdom, are likely to function as sensor molecules in calcium-mediated signaling pathways. Calcium ions are important secondary messengers during plant growth and development (Harper et al., Science 252, 951-954 (1993); Roberts et al., Curr Opin Cell Biol 5, 242-246 (1993); Roberts et al., Annu Rev Plant Mol Biol 43, 375-414 (1992)).

Nematode responsive protein (NRP) is produced by soybean upon the infection of soybean cyst nematode. NRP has homology to a taste-modifying glycoprotein miraculin and the NF34 protein involved in tumor formation and hyper response induction. NRP is believed to function as a defense-inducer in response to nematode infection (Tenhaken et al., BMC Bioinformatics 6:169 (2005)).

The quality of seeds and grains is reflected in traits such as levels and types of fatty acids or oils (saturated and unsaturated), quality and quantity of essential amino acids, and levels of carbohydrates. Therefore, commercial traits involving a gene or genes that increase the amino acids methionine and cysteine, two sulfur containing amino acids present in low amounts in soybeans, are of interest. Cystathionine gamma synthase (CGS) and serine acetyl transferase (SAT) are enzymes involved in the synthesis of methionine and cysteine, respectively.

Other commercial traits can involve genes that increase, for example, monounsaturated fatty acids, such as oleic acid, in oil seeds. Soybean oil contains high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids and is more prone to oxidation than oils with higher levels of monounsaturated and saturated fatty acids. High oleic soybean seeds can be prepared by recombinant manipulation of the activity of oleoyl 12-desaturase (Fad2), and high oleic soybean oil can then be used in applications that require a high degree of oxidative stability, such as cooking for a long period of time at an elevated temperature.

Raffinose saccharides accumulate in significant quantities in the edible portion of many economically significant crop species, such as soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill), sugar beet (Beta vulgaris), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), canola (Brassica sp.), and all of the major edible leguminous crops including beans (Phaseolus sp.), chick pea (Cicer arietinum), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), mung bean (Vigna radiata), peas (Pisum sativum), lentil (Lens culinaris) and lupine (Lupinus sp.). Although abundant in many species, raffinose saccharides are an obstacle to the efficient utilization of some economically important crop species. Thus, downregulation of the expression of the enzymes involved in raffinose saccharide synthesis, such as galactinol synthase, for example, would be a desirable trait.

“Codon degeneracy” refers to divergence in the genetic code permitting variation of the nucleotide sequence without affecting the amino acid sequence of an encoded polypeptide. Accordingly, the instant invention relates to any nucleic acid fragment comprising a nucleotide sequence that encodes all or a substantial portion of the amino acid sequences set forth herein. The skilled artisan is well aware of the “codon-bias” exhibited by a specific host cell in usage of nucleotide codons to specify a given amino acid. Therefore, when synthesizing a nucleic acid fragment for improved expression in a host cell, it is desirable to design the nucleic acid fragment such that its frequency of codon usage approaches the frequency of preferred codon usage of the host cell.

“Coding sequence” refers to a DNA sequence that codes for a specific amino acid sequence. “Regulatory sequences” refer to nucleotide sequences located upstream (5′ non-coding sequences), within, or downstream (3′ non-coding sequences) of a coding sequence, and which influence the transcription, RNA processing or stability, or translation of the associated coding sequence. Regulatory sequences may include, but are not limited to, promoters, translation leader sequences, introns, and polyadenylation recognition sequences.

The term “expression”, as used herein, refers to the production of a functional end-product e.g., an mRNA or a protein (precursor or mature). “Altering expression” refers to the production of gene product(s) in transgenic organisms in amounts or proportions that differ significantly from the amount of the gene product(s) produced by the corresponding wild-type organisms (i.e., expression is increased or decreased).

Expression or overexpression of a gene involves transcription of the gene and translation of the mRNA into a precursor or mature protein. “Antisense inhibition” refers to the production of antisense RNA transcripts capable of suppressing the expression of the target protein. “Overexpression” refers to the production of a gene product in transgenic organisms that exceeds levels of production in normal or non-transformed organisms. “Co-suppression” refers to the production of sense RNA transcripts capable of suppressing the expression or transcript accumulation of identical or substantially similar foreign or endogenous genes (U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,020). The mechanism of co-suppression may be at the DNA level (such as DNA methylation), at the transcriptional level, or at post-transcriptional level.

Co-suppression constructs in plants previously have been designed by focusing on overexpression of a nucleic acid sequence having homology to an endogenous mRNA, in the sense orientation, which results in the reduction of all RNA having homology to the overexpressed sequence (see Vaucheret et al., Plant J. 16:651-659 (1998); and Gura, Nature 404:804-808 (2000)). The overall efficiency of this phenomenon is low, and the extent of the RNA reduction is widely variable. Recent work has described the use of “hairpin” structures that incorporate all, or part, of an mRNA encoding sequence in a complementary orientation that results in a potential “stem-loop” structure for the expressed RNA (PCT Publication No. WO 99/53050 published on Oct. 21, 1999; and PCT Publication No. WO 02/00904 published on Jan. 3, 2002). This increases the frequency of co-suppression in the recovered transgenic plants. Another variation describes the use of plant viral sequences to direct the suppression, or “silencing”, of proximal mRNA encoding sequences (PCT Publication No. WO 98/36083 published on Aug. 20, 1998). Current data has suggested that dsRNA mediated mRNA cleavage may have been the conserved mechanism underlying these gene silencing phenomena (Elmayan et al., Plant Cell 10:1747-1757 (1998); Galun, In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. Plant 41 (2):113-123 (2005); Pickford et al., Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 60(5):871-882 (2003)).

The terms “fragment (or variant) that is functionally equivalent” and “functionally equivalent fragment (or variant)” are used interchangeably herein. These terms refer to a portion or subsequence or variant of the terminator sequence of the present invention in which the ability to terminate transcription is retained. Fragments and variants can be obtained via methods such as site-directed mutagenesis and synthetic construction. Recombinant DNA constructs can be designed for use in co-suppression or antisense by linking a promoter, a heterologous nucleotide sequence, and a terminator fragment or variant thereof.

“Gene” refers to a nucleic acid fragment that expresses a specific protein, including regulatory sequences preceding (5′ non-coding sequences) and following (3′ non-coding sequences) the coding sequence. “Native gene” refers to a gene as found in nature with its own regulatory sequences. “Chimeric gene”, “recombinant DNA construct”, or “recombinant expression construct”, which are used interchangeably, refer to any gene that is not a native gene, comprising regulatory and coding sequences that are not found together in nature. Accordingly, a chimeric gene may comprise regulatory sequences and coding sequences that are derived from different sources, or regulatory sequences and coding sequences derived from the same source, but arranged in a manner different than that found in nature. “Endogenous gene” refers to a native gene in its natural location in the genome of an organism. A “foreign” gene refers to a gene not normally found in the host organism, but that is introduced into the host organism by gene transfer. Foreign genes can comprise native genes inserted into a non-native organism, or chimeric genes. A “transgene” is a gene that has been introduced into the genome by a transformation procedure.

A “heterologous nucleic acid fragment” or “heterologous nucleotide sequence” refers to a nucleotide sequence that is not naturally occurring with the plant terminator sequence of the invention. While this nucleotide sequence is heterologous to the terminator sequence, it may be homologous, or native, or heterologous, or foreign, to the plant host.

An “intron” is an intervening sequence in a gene that is transcribed into RNA and then excised in the process of generating the mature mRNA. The term is also used for the excised RNA sequences. An “exon” is a portion of the sequence of a gene that is transcribed and is found in the mature messenger RNA derived from the gene. An exon is not necessarily a part of the sequence that encodes the final gene product.

An “isolated nucleic acid fragment” or “isolated polynucleotide” refers to a polymer of ribonucleotides (RNA) or deoxyribonucleotides (DNA) that is single- or double-stranded, optionally containing synthetic, non-natural or altered nucleotide bases. An isolated polynucleotide in the form of DNA may be comprised of one or more segments of cDNA, genomic DNA, or synthetic DNA.

The term “operably linked” refers to the association of nucleic acid sequences on a single polynucleotide so that the function of one is affected by the other. For example, a promoter is operably linked with a heterologous nucleotide sequence, e.g. a coding sequence, when it is capable of affecting the expression of that heterologous nucleotide sequence (i.e., the coding sequence is under the transcriptional control of the promoter). A coding sequence can be operably linked to regulatory sequences in sense or antisense orientation.

A “plasmid” or “vector” is an extra chromosomal element often carrying genes that are not part of the central metabolism of the cell, and usually in the form of circular double-stranded DNA fragments. Such elements may be autonomously replicating sequences, genome integrating sequences, phage or nucleotide sequences, linear or circular, of a single- or double-stranded DNA or RNA, derived from any source, in which a number of nucleotide sequences have been joined or recombined into a unique construction which is capable of introducing an expression cassette(s) into a cell. “Expression cassette” refers to a fragment of DNA containing a foreign gene and having elements in addition to the foreign gene that allow for enhanced expression of that gene in a foreign host. “Transformation cassette” refers to a fragment of DNA containing a foreign gene and having elements in addition to the foreign gene that facilitate transformation of a particular host cell.

“PCR” or “Polymerase Chain Reaction” is a technique for the synthesis of large quantities of specific DNA segments, consisting of a series of repetitive cycles (Perkin Elmer Cetus Instruments, Norwalk, Conn.). Typically, the double stranded DNA is heat denatured, and the two primers complementary to the 3′ boundaries of the target segment are annealed at low temperature and then extended at an intermediate temperature. One set of these three consecutive steps comprises a cycle.

The terms “polynucleotide”, “polynucleotide sequence”, “nucleic acid sequence”, and “nucleic acid fragment”/“isolated nucleic acid fragment” are used interchangeably herein. These terms encompass nucleotide sequences and the like. A polynucleotide may be a polymer of RNA or DNA that is single- or double-stranded, that optionally contains synthetic, non-natural or altered nucleotide bases. A polynucleotide in the form of a polymer of DNA may be comprised of one or more segments of cDNA, genomic DNA, synthetic DNA, or mixtures thereof. Nucleotides (usually found in their 5′-monophosphate form) are referred to by a single letter designation as follows: “A” for adenylate or deoxyadenylate (for RNA or DNA, respectively), “C” for cytidylate or deoxycytidylate, “G” for guanylate or deoxyguanylate, “U” for uridylate, “T” for deoxythymidylate, “R” for purines (A or G), “Y” for pyrimidines (C or T), “K” for G or T, “H” for A or C or T, “I” for inosine, and “N” for any nucleotide.

“Promoter” refers to a nucleotide sequence capable of controlling the expression of a coding sequence or functional RNA. Functional RNA includes, but is not limited to, transfer RNA (tRNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA). The promoter sequence consists of proximal and more distal upstream elements, the latter elements often referred to as enhancers. Accordingly, an “enhancer” is a DNA sequence which can stimulate promoter activity and may be an innate element of the promoter or a heterologous element inserted to enhance the level or tissue-specificity of a promoter. Promoters may be derived in their entirety from a native gene, or be composed of different elements derived from different promoters found in nature, or even comprise synthetic DNA segments. It is understood by those skilled in the art that different promoters may direct the expression of a gene in different tissues or cell types, or at different stages of development, or in response to different environmental conditions. Promoters which cause a gene to be expressed in most cell types at most times are commonly referred to as “constitutive promoters”. It is further recognized that since in most cases the exact boundaries of regulatory sequences have not been completely defined, DNA fragments of some variation may have identical promoter activity.

The term “recombinant” refers to an artificial combination of two otherwise separated segments of sequence, e.g., by chemical synthesis or by the manipulation of isolated segments of nucleic acids by genetic engineering techniques.

The terms “recombinant construct”, “expression construct”, “chimeric construct”, “construct”, and “recombinant DNA construct” are used interchangeably herein. A recombinant construct comprises an artificial combination of nucleic acid fragments, e.g., regulatory and coding sequences that are not found together in nature. For example, a recombinant construct may comprise regulatory sequences and coding sequences that are derived from different sources, or regulatory sequences and coding sequences derived from the same source, but arranged in a manner different than that found in nature. Such a construct may be used by itself or may be used in conjunction with a vector. If a vector is used, then the choice of vector is dependent upon the method that will be used to transform host cells as is well known to those skilled in the art. For example, a plasmid vector can be used. The skilled artisan is well aware of the genetic elements that must be present on the vector in order to successfully transform, select and propagate host cells comprising any of the isolated nucleic acid fragments of the invention. The skilled artisan will also recognize that different independent transformation events will result in different levels and patterns of expression (Jones et al., EMBO J. 4:2411-2418 (1985); De Almeida et al., Mol. Gen. Genetics 218:78-86 (1989)), and thus that multiple events must be screened in order to obtain lines displaying the desired expression level and pattern. Such screening may be accomplished by Southern analysis of DNA, Northern analysis of mRNA expression, immunoblotting analysis of protein expression, or phenotypic analysis, among others.

Standard recombinant DNA and molecular cloning techniques used herein are well known in the art and are described more fully in Sambrook, J. et al., In Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2^(nd) ed.; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1989 (hereinafter “Sambrook et al., 1989”) or Ausubel, F. M., Brent, R., Kingston, R. E., Moore, D. D., Seidman, J. G., Smith, J. A. and Struhl, K., Eds.; In Current Protocols in Molecular Biology; John Wiley and Sons: New York, 1990 (hereinafter “Ausubel et al., 1990”).

“RNA transcript” refers to a product resulting from RNA polymerase-catalyzed transcription of a DNA sequence. When an RNA transcript is a perfect complementary copy of a DNA sequence, it is referred to as a primary transcript, or it may be an RNA sequence derived from posttranscriptional processing of a primary transcript and is referred to as a mature RNA. “Messenger RNA” (“mRNA”) refers to RNA that is without introns and that can be translated into protein by the cell. “cDNA” refers to a DNA that is complementary to and synthesized from an mRNA template using the enzyme reverse transcriptase. The cDNA can be single-stranded or converted into the double-stranded by using the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I. “Sense” RNA refers to RNA transcript that includes mRNA and so can be translated into protein within a cell or in vitro. “Antisense RNA” refers to a RNA transcript that is complementary to all or part of a target primary transcript or mRNA and that blocks expression or transcript accumulation of a target gene (U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,065). The complementarity of an antisense RNA may be with any part of the specific gene transcript, i.e. at the 5′ non-coding sequence, 3′ non-coding sequence, introns, or the coding sequence. “Functional RNA” refers to antisense RNA, ribozyme RNA, or other RNA that may not be translated yet has an effect on cellular processes.

A “substantially homologous sequence” refers to variants of the disclosed sequences such as those that result from site-directed mutagenesis, as well as synthetically derived sequences. A substantially homologous sequence of the present invention also refers to those fragments of a particular terminator nucleotide sequence disclosed herein that operate to terminate transcription of an operably linked heterologous nucleic acid fragment. These terminator fragments will comprise at least about 20 contiguous nucleotides, preferably at least about 50 contiguous nucleotides, more preferably at least about 75 contiguous nucleotides, even more preferably at least about 100 contiguous nucleotides of the particular terminator nucleotide sequence disclosed herein. Such fragments may be obtained by use of restriction enzymes to cleave the naturally occurring terminator nucleotide sequences disclosed herein; by synthesizing a nucleotide sequence from the naturally occurring terminator DNA sequence; or may be obtained through the use of PCR technology. See particularly, Mullis et al., Methods Enzymol. 155:335-350 (1987), and Higuchi, R. In PCR Technology: Principles and Applications for DNA Amplifications; Erlich, H. A., Ed.; Stockton Press Inc.: New York, 1989. Again, variants of these terminator fragments, such as those resulting from site-directed mutagenesis, are encompassed by the compositions of the present invention.

The terms “substantially similar” and “corresponding substantially” as used herein refer to nucleic acid fragments, particularly terminator sequences, wherein changes in one or more nucleotide bases do not substantially alter the ability of the terminator to terminate transcription. These terms also refer to modifications, including deletions and variants, of the nucleic acid sequences of the instant invention by way of deletion or insertion of one or more nucleotides that do not substantially alter the functional properties of the resulting terminator relative to the initial, unmodified terminator. It is therefore understood, as those skilled in the art will appreciate, that the invention encompasses more than the specific exemplary sequences.

Moreover, the skilled artisan recognizes that substantially similar nucleic acid sequences encompassed by this invention are also defined by their ability to hybridize, under moderately stringent conditions (for example, 0.5×SSC, 0.1% SDS, 60° C.) with the sequences exemplified herein, or to any portion of the nucleotide sequences reported herein and which are functionally equivalent to the terminator of the invention. Estimates of such homology are provided by either DNA-DNA or DNA-RNA hybridization under conditions of stringency as is well understood by those skilled in the art (Hames and Higgins, Eds.; In Nucleic Acid Hybridisation; IRL Press: Oxford, U.K., 1985). Stringency conditions can be adjusted to screen for moderately similar fragments, such as homologous sequences from distantly related organisms, to highly similar fragments, such as genes that duplicate functional enzymes from closely related organisms. Post-hybridization washes partially determine stringency conditions. One set of conditions uses a series of washes starting with 6×SSC, 0.5% SDS at room temperature for 15 min, then repeated with 2×SSC, 0.5% SDS at 45° C. for 30 min, and then repeated twice with 0.2×SSC, 0.5% SDS at 50° C. for 30 min. Another set of stringent conditions uses higher temperatures in which the washes are identical to those above except for the temperature of the final two 30 min washes in 0.2×SSC, 0.5% SDS was increased to 60° C. Another set of highly stringent conditions uses two final washes in 0.1×SSC, 0.1% SDS at 65° C.

Preferred substantially similar nucleic acid sequences encompassed by this invention are those sequences that are 80% identical to the nucleic acid fragments reported herein or which are 80% identical to any portion of the nucleotide sequences reported herein. More preferred are nucleic acid fragments which are 90% identical to the nucleic acid sequences reported herein, or which are 90% identical to any portion of the nucleotide sequences reported herein. Most preferred are nucleic acid fragments which are 95% identical to the nucleic acid sequences reported herein, or which are 95% identical to any portion of the nucleotide sequences reported herein. It is well understood by one skilled in the art that many levels of sequence identity are useful in identifying related polynucleotide sequences. Useful examples of percent identities are those listed above, or also preferred is any integer percentage from 80% to 100%, such as 81%, 82%, 83%, 84%, 85%, 86%, 87%, 88%, 89%, 90%, 91%, 92%, 93%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 97%, 98, and 99%.

Sequence alignments and percent similarity calculations may be determined using the Megalign program of the LASARGENE bioinformatics computing suite (DNASTAR Inc., Madison, Wis.) or using the AlignX program of the Vector NTI bioinformatics computing suite (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif.). Multiple alignment of the sequences are performed using the Clustal method of alignment (Higgins and Sharp, CABIOS 5:151-153 (1989)) with the default parameters (GAP PENALTY=10, GAP LENGTH PENALTY=10). Default parameters for pairwise alignments and calculation of percent identity of protein sequences using the Clustal method are KTUPLE=1, GAP PENALTY=3, WINDOW=5 and DIAGONALS SAVED=5. For nucleic acids these parameters are GAP PENALTY=10, GAP LENGTH PENALTY=10, KTUPLE=2, GAP PENALTY=5, WINDOW=4 and DIAGONALS SAVED=4. A “substantial portion” of an amino acid or nucleotide sequence comprises enough of the amino acid sequence of a polypeptide or the nucleotide sequence of a gene to afford putative identification of that polypeptide or gene, either by manual evaluation of the sequence by one skilled in the art, or by computer-automated sequence comparison and identification using algorithms such as BLAST (Altschul, S. F. et al., J. Mol. Biol. 215:403-410 (1993)) and Gapped Blast (Altschul, S. F. et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 25:3389-3402 (1997)). The “BLASTN method of alignment” refers to a BLAST program that compares a nucleotide query sequence against a nucleotide sequence database.

As stated herein, “suppression” refers to a reduction of the level of enzyme activity or protein functionality (e.g., a phenotype associated with a protein) detectable in a transgenic plant when compared to the level of enzyme activity or protein functionality detectable in a non-transgenic or wild type plant with the native enzyme or protein. The level of enzyme activity in a plant with the native enzyme is referred to herein as “wild type” activity. The level of protein functionality in a plant with the native protein is referred to herein as “wild type” functionality. The term “suppression” includes lower, reduce, decline, decrease, inhibit, eliminate, and prevent. This reduction may be due to a decrease in translation of the native mRNA into an active enzyme or functional protein. It may also be due to the transcription of the native DNA into decreased amounts of mRNA and/or to rapid degradation of the native mRNA. The term “native enzyme” refers to an enzyme that is produced naturally in a non-transgenic or wild type cell. The terms “non-transgenic” and “wild type” are used interchangeably herein.

“Transcription terminator”, “3′ non-coding sequences”, “termination sequences”, or “terminator” refer to DNA sequences located downstream of a coding sequence, including polyadenylation recognition sequences and other sequences encoding regulatory signals capable of affecting mRNA processing or gene expression. The polyadenylation signal is usually characterized by affecting the addition of polyadenylic acid tracts to the 3′ end of the mRNA precursor. The use of different 3′ non-coding sequences is exemplified by Ingelbrecht, I. L., et al., Plant Cell 1:671-680 (1989).

“Transformation” refers to the transfer of a nucleic acid fragment into the genome of a host organism, resulting in genetically stable inheritance. Host organisms containing the transformed nucleic acid fragments are referred to as “transgenic” organisms. Thus, a “transgenic plant cell’ as used herein refers to a plant cell containing the transformed nucleic acid fragments. The preferred method of soybean cell transformation is the use of particle-accelerated or “gene gun” transformation technology (Klein et al., Nature (London) 327:70-73 (1987); U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,050).

“Transient expression” refers to the temporary expression of a gene, often a reporter gene such as β-glucuronidase (GUS) or any of the fluorescent protein genes, GFP, ZS-YELLOW1 N1, AM-CYAN1, and DS-RED, in selected certain cell types of the host organism in which the transgenic gene is introduced temporally by a transformation method. The transformed material of the host organism is subsequently discarded after the transient gene expression assay.

The “translation leader sequence” refers to a DNA sequence located between the promoter sequence of a gene and the coding sequence. The translation leader sequence is present in the fully processed mRNA upstream of the translation start sequence. The translation leader sequence may affect processing of the primary transcript to mRNA, mRNA stability, or translation efficiency. Examples of translation leader sequences have been described (Turner, R. and Foster, G. D., Molecular Biotechnology 3:225 (1995)).

This invention concerns isolated terminators of a MYB family transcription factor (MYB2), a Kunitz trypsin inhibitor (KTI1), a plasma membrane intrinsic protein (PIP1), a translation elongation factor (EF-1A), and a metallothionein protein (MTH1).

This invention concerns an isolated polynucleotide comprising a terminator wherein said terminator comprises the nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128; a full-length complement of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128; or a nucleotide sequence having at least 90% sequence identity, based on the BLASTN method of alignment, when compared to the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128.

A nucleic acid fragment that is functionally equivalent to an instant terminator is any nucleic acid fragment that is capable of terminating the transcription of a coding sequence or functional RNA in a similar manner as the terminator. Thus, the invention also includes a nucleotide sequence comprising a fragment of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128; a full-length complement of a fragment of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128; or a nucleotide sequence having at least 90% sequence identity, based on the BLASTN method of alignment, when compared to the fragment of SEQ ID NO:1, SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:124, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:126, SEQ ID NO:127, or SEQ ID NO:128, or a full-length complement thereof, wherein the nucleotide sequence functions as a terminator.

The terminator activity of each of the soybean genomic DNA fragments of SEQ ID NO:1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 was individually assessed by linking the fragment to a yellow fluorescence reporter gene, ZS-YELLOW1 N1 (YFP) which is controlled by a soybean ubiquitin gene promoter GM-UBQ (Matz et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 17:969-973 (1999)), transforming the UBQ:YFP:terminator expression cassette into soybean, and analyzing YFP expression in various cell types of the transgenic plants (see EXAMPLES 7 and 8). YFP expression was detected in all parts of the transgenic plants, though stronger expression was detected in fast growing tissues such as developing embryos and pods. These results indicated that the nucleic acid fragment functioned as a transcription terminator to add polyadenylation tails on the YFP gene transcripts and to terminate YFP gene transcription.

It is clear from the disclosure set forth herein that one of ordinary skill in the art could perform the following procedure:

1) operably linking the nucleic acid fragment containing a terminator sequence of the invention to a suitable reporter gene; there are a variety of reporter genes that are well known to those skilled in the art, including the bacterial GUS gene, the firefly luciferase gene, and the cyan, green, red, and yellow fluorescent protein genes; any gene for which an easy and reliable assay is available can serve as the reporter gene.

2) transforming a chimeric promoter:reporter:terminator gene expression cassette into an appropriate plant for expression of the reporter. There are a variety of appropriate plants which can be used as a host for transformation that are well known to those skilled in the art, including the dicots, Arabidopsis, tobacco, soybean, oilseed rape, peanut, sunflower, safflower, cotton, tomato, potato, and cocoa and the monocots, corn, wheat, rice, barley, and palm.

3) testing for expression of the promoter:reporter:terminator in various cell types of transgenic plant tissues, e.g., leaves, roots, flowers, seeds, transformed with the chimeric promoter:reporter:terminator gene expression cassette by assaying for expression of the reporter gene product.

In another aspect, this invention concerns a recombinant DNA construct comprising a promoter, at least one heterologous nucleic acid fragment, and any terminator, or combination of terminator elements, of the present invention, wherein the promoter, at least one heterologous nucleic acid fragment, and terminator(s) are operably linked. Recombinant DNA constructs can be constructed by operably linking the nucleic acid fragment of the invention, the terminator sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 124, 125, 126, 127, or 128 or a fragment that is substantially similar and functionally equivalent to any portion of the nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 124, 125, 126, 127, or 128, to a heterologous nucleic acid fragment. Any heterologous nucleic acid fragment can be used to practice the invention. The selection will depend upon the desired application or phenotype to be achieved. The various nucleic acid sequences can be manipulated so as to provide for the nucleic acid sequences in the proper orientation.

In another embodiment, this invention concerns host cells comprising either the recombinant DNA constructs of the invention as described herein or isolated polynucleotides of the invention as described herein. Examples of host cells which can be used to practice the invention include, but are not limited to, yeast, bacteria, and plants.

Plasmid vectors comprising the instant recombinant DNA construct can be constructed. The choice of plasmid vector is dependent upon the method that will be used to transform host cells. The skilled artisan is well aware of the genetic elements that must be present on the plasmid vector in order to successfully transform, select, and propagate host cells containing the chimeric gene.

Methods for transforming dicots, primarily by use of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and obtaining transgenic plants have been published, among others, for cotton (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,004,863, 5,159,135); soybean (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,569,834, 5,416,011); Brassica (U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,174); peanut (Cheng et al., Plant Cell Rep. 15:653-657 (1996), McKently et al., Plant Cell Rep. 14:699-703 (1995)); papaya (Ling et al., Bio/technology 9:752-758 (1991)); and pea (Grant et al., Plant Cell Rep. 15:254-258 (1995)). For a review of other commonly used methods of plant transformation see Newell, C. A., Mol. Biotechnol. 16:53-65 (2000). One of these methods of transformation uses Agrobacterium rhizogenes (Tepfler, M. and Casse-Delbart, F., Microbiol. Sci. 4:24-28 (1987)). Transformation of soybeans using direct delivery of DNA has been published using PEG fusion (PCT Publication No. WO 92/17598), electroporation (Chowrira et al., Mol. Biotechnol. 3:17-23 (1995); Christou et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84:3962-3966 (1987)), microinjection, or particle bombardment (McCabe et al., Bio/Technology 6:923 (1988); Christou et al., Plant Physiol. 87:671-674 (1988)).

There are a variety of methods for the regeneration of plants from plant tissues. The particular method of regeneration will depend on the starting plant tissue and the particular plant species to be regenerated. The regeneration, development and cultivation of plants from single plant protoplast transformants or from various transformed explants is well known in the art (Weissbach and Weissbach, Eds.; In Methods for Plant Molecular Biology; Academic Press, Inc.: San Diego, Calif., 1988). This regeneration and growth process typically includes the steps of selection of transformed cells, culturing those individualized cells through the usual stages of embryonic development or through the rooted plantlet stage. Transgenic embryos and seeds are similarly regenerated. The resulting transgenic rooted shoots are thereafter planted in an appropriate plant growth medium such as soil. Preferably, the regenerated plants are self-pollinated to provide homozygous transgenic plants. Otherwise, pollen obtained from the regenerated plants is crossed to seed-grown plants of agronomically important lines. Conversely, pollen from plants of these important lines is used to pollinate regenerated plants. A transgenic plant of the present invention containing a desired polypeptide is cultivated using methods well known to one skilled in the art.

In addition to the above discussed procedures, practitioners are familiar with the standard resource materials which describe specific conditions and procedures for the construction, manipulation and isolation of macromolecules (e.g., DNA molecules, plasmids, etc.), generation of recombinant DNA fragments and recombinant expression constructs and the screening and isolating of clones, (see for example, Sambrook, J. et al., In Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2^(nd) ed.; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1989; Maliga et al., In Methods in Plant Molecular Biology; Cold Spring Harbor Press, 1995; Birren et al., In Genome Analysis: Detecting Genes, 1; Cold Spring Harbor: N.Y., 1998; Birren et al., In Genome Analysis: Analyzing DNA, 2; Cold Spring Harbor: N.Y., 1998; Clark, Ed., In Plant Molecular Biology: A Laboratory Manual; Springer: N.Y., 1997).

The skilled artisan will also recognize that different independent transformation events will result in different levels and patterns of expression of the chimeric genes (Jones et al., EMBO J. 4:2411-2418 (1985); De Almeida et al., Mol. Gen. Genetics 218:78-86 (1989)). Thus, multiple events must be screened in order to obtain lines displaying the desired expression level and pattern. Such screening may be accomplished by Northern analysis of mRNA expression, Western analysis of protein expression, or phenotypic analysis. Also of interest are seeds obtained from transformed plants displaying the desired gene expression profile.

Another general application of the terminators of the invention is to construct chimeric genes that can be used to reduce expression of at least one heterologous nucleic acid fragment in a plant cell. To accomplish this, a chimeric gene designed for gene silencing of a heterologous nucleic acid fragment can be constructed by linking the fragment to a promoter of choice and a terminator of the present invention. (See U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,020, and PCT Publication No. WO 99/53050, PCT Publication No. WO 02/00904, and PCT Publication No. WO 98/36083, for methodology to block plant gene expression via cosuppression.) Alternatively, a chimeric gene designed to express antisense RNA for a heterologous nucleic acid fragment can be constructed by linking the fragment in reverse orientation to the terminator of the present invention. (See U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,065 for methodology to block plant gene expression via antisense RNA.) Either the cosuppression or antisense chimeric gene can be introduced into plants via transformation. Transformants wherein expression of the heterologous nucleic acid fragment is decreased or eliminated are then selected.

This invention also concerns a method of expressing at least one heterologous nucleic acid fragment in a plant cell which comprises:

-   -   (a) transforming a plant cell with the recombinant DNA construct         described herein;     -   (b) growing fertile mature plants from the transformed plant         cell of step (a);     -   (c) selecting plants containing a transformed plant cell wherein         the heterologous nucleic acid fragment is expressed.

Transformation and selection can be accomplished using methods well-known to those skilled in the art including, but not limited to, the methods described herein.

EXAMPLES

The present invention is further defined in the following Examples. It should be understood that these Examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only. From the above discussion and these Examples, one skilled in the art can ascertain the essential characteristics of this invention, and without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, can make various changes and modifications of the invention to adapt it to various usages and conditions. Thus, various modifications of the invention in addition to those shown and described herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing description. Such modifications are also intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims.

In the discussion below, parts and percentages are by weight, and degrees are Celsius, unless otherwise stated. Sequences of promoters, cDNA, adaptors, terminators, and primers listed in this invention are in the 5′ to 3′ orientation unless described otherwise. Techniques in molecular biology were typically performed as described in Ausubel, F. M. et al. (In Current Protocols in Molecular Biology; John Wiley and Sons: New York, (1990)) or Sambrook, J. et al. (In Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2^(nd) ed.; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., (1989)) (hereinafter “Sambrook et al., 1989”).

Example 1 Identification of Terminator Candidate Genes

Soybean expression sequence tags (EST) were generated by sequencing randomly selected clones from cDNA libraries constructed from different soybean tissues. Multiple EST sequences could often be found with different lengths representing the different regions of the same soybean gene. For those EST sequences representing the same gene that are found more frequently in one tissue-specific cDNA library than in another, there is a possibility that the represented gene could be a tissue-preferred gene candidate. For example, EST sequences representing the same gene that are found more frequently in a flower library than in a leaf library may indicate a flower-preferred gene candidate. Alternatively, if similar numbers of ESTs for the same gene are found in various libraries constructed from different tissues, the represented gene could be a constitutively expressed gene. Multiple EST sequences representing the same soybean gene were compiled electronically, based on their overlapping sequence homology, into a full length sequence representing that unique gene. The assembled unique gene sequences were collected, and the information was stored in searchable databases.

To identify strong constitutively expressed genes, database searches were performed to detect gene sequences found at similar frequencies across multiple tissue-specific libraries, such as leaf, root, flower, embryos, pod, etc. To identify tissue-specific genes, e.g. seed-specific genes, searches were performed to look for gene sequences found at high frequency in one tissue-specific library, such as a seed-specific library, and at little to no frequency in other tissue-specific libraries. Several constitutive and tissue-specific genes were identified as candidates for the cloning of novel promoters and/or terminators.

A more sensitive gene expression profiling methodology MPSS (Mass Parallel Signature Sequence) transcript profiling technique (Brenner et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:1665-70 (2000)) was used to confirm the gene expression profiles of the candidate genes. The MPSS technology involves the generation of 17 base signature tags from mRNA samples that have been reverse transcribed from poly A+ RNA isolated using standard molecular biology techniques (Sambrook et al., 1989). The tags are simultaneously sequenced and assigned to genes or ESTs. The abundance of these tags is given a number value that is normalized to parts per million (PPM), which then allows the tag expression, or tag abundance, to be compared across different tissues. Thus, the MPSS platform can be used to determine the expression pattern of a particular gene and its expression levels in different tissues.

MPSS gene expression profiles were generated from different soybean tissues over time, and the profiles were accumulated in a searchable database. Each candidate gene sequence was first used to search the MPSS database to identify an MPSS tag that was identical to a 17 base pair region in the 3′ end of the corresponding cDNA sequence. The tag sequence was then used to search the MPSS database again to reveal its abundance in different tissues. As illustrated in Table 1, the PSO323364 gene was confirmed to be flower-specific; the PSO400362 gene was confirmed to be seed-specific; and PSO332986 and PSO333268 were confirmed to be constitutively expressed. No sequence-specific tag was identified for PSO333209.

TABLE 1 Abundances of four gene-specific MPSS tags in soybean tissues Gene ID PSO323364 PSO400362 PSO332986 PSO333268 SEQ ID NO: 16 17 18 19 Anther 0 0 200 2245 Flower 1720 0 3325 2715 Leaf 0 0 2105 4810 Pod 0 0 3327 5848 Root 0 0 6046 4422 Seed 0 82124 4338 7171 Stem 0 0 3827 3275

The MPSS profiles of the candidate genes were confirmed and extended by analyzing 14 different soybean tissues using the relative quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) technique with an ABI7500 real time PCR system (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif.).

Fourteen soybean tissues (somatic embryo, somatic embryo grown one week on charcoal plate, leaf, leaf petiole, root, flower bud, open flower, R3 pod, R4 seed, R4 pod coat, R5 seed, R5 pod coat, R6 seed, R6 pod coat) were collected from cultivar ‘Jack’ and flash frozen in liquid nitrogen. The seed and pod development stages were defined according to descriptions in Fehr and Caviness, IWSRBC 80:1-12 (1977). Total RNA was extracted with Trizol reagents (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif.) and treated with DNase I to remove any trace amount of genomic DNA contamination. The first strand cDNA was synthesized using the Superscript III reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen).

PCR analysis was performed to confirm that the cDNA was free of genomic DNA, using primers SAMS-L and SAMS-L2 (SEQ ID NO:53 and SEQ ID NO:54, respectively). The primers are specific to the 5′ UTR intron/exon junction region of a soybean S-adenosylmethionine synthetase gene promoter SAMS (PCT Publication No. WO00/37662). PCR using this primer set amplifies a 967 bp DNA fragment from soybean genomic DNA template and a 376 bp DNA fragment from the cDNA template.

The cDNA aliquots were used in the quantitative RT-PCR analysis, using the Power Sybr® Green real time PCR master mix (Applied Biosystems). An endogenous soybean ATP sulfurylase gene was used as an internal control, and wild type soybean genomic DNA was used as the calibrator for relative quantification. The data was captured and analyzed using the sequence detection software provided with the ABI7500 real time PCR system. The gene-specific primers used for the endogenous control ATPS gene were ATPS-87F and ATPS-161R (SEQ ID NO:20 and SEQ ID NO:21, respectively). The primers used for the five other target genes were: PSO323364F and PSO323364R (SEQ ID NO:22 and SEQ ID NO:23, respectively) for PSO323364, PSO400362F and PSO400362R (SEQ ID NO:24 and SEQ ID NO:25, respectively) for PSO400362, PSO332986F and PSO332986R (SEQ ID NO:26 and SEQ ID NO:27, respectively) for PSO332986, PSO333268F and PSO333268R (SEQ ID NO:28 and SEQ ID NO:29, respectively) for PSO333268, and PSO333209F and PSO333209R (SEQ ID NO:30 and SEQ ID NO:31, respectively) for PSO333209. For each of the five genes, the qRT-PCR profile, as illustrated in FIG. 1, was consistent with its respective MPSS expression profile.

The putatively translated polypeptide sequences of the five candidate genes were used to search the databases of the National Center for Biotechnology Information to identify homologous sequences. The putative polypeptide encoded by the PSO323364 gene (the nucleotide and amino acid sequences are set forth in SEQ ID NO:6 and SEQ ID NO:11, respectively) has significant homology to MYB transcription factors (Uimari and Strommer, Plant J. 12:1273-1284 (1997)) and is referred to herein as MYB2. The putative polypeptide encoded by the PSO400362 gene (the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of which are set forth in SEQ ID NO:7 and SEQ ID NO:12, respectively) has significant homology to Kunitz trypsin inhibitors (Jofuko and Goldberg, Plant Cell 1:1079-1093 (1989)) and is referred to herein as KTI1. The putative polypeptide encoded by the PSO332986 gene (the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of which are set forth in SEQ ID NO:8 and SEQ ID NO:13, respectively) has significant homology to plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (Uehlein et al., Phytochemistry 68:122-129 (2007)) and is referred to herein as PIP1. The putative polypeptide encoded by the PSO333268 gene (the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of which are set forth in SEQ ID NO:9 and SEQ ID NO:14, respectively) has significant homology to translation elongation factor EF-1α genes (Aguilar et al., Plant Mol. Biol. 17:351-360 (1991)) and is referred to herein as EF1A2. The putative polypeptide encoded by the PSO333209 gene (the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of which are set forth in SEQ ID NO:10 and SEQ ID NO:15, respectively) has significant homology to metallothionein-like proteins (Munoz et al., Physiol. Plantarum 104:273-279 (1998)) and is referred to herein as MTH1.

Example 2 Cloning of Novel Terminators

Soybean BAC (bacterial artificial chromosome) clones that contain the selected genes were identified by PCR analysis. PSO323364 was found on BAC clone SBH145N17; PSO400362 was found on BAC clone SBH136J24; PSO332986 was found on BAC clone SBH172F4; PSO333268 was found on BAC clone SBH123F11; and PSO333209 was found on BAC clone SBH85K11. Approximately 1 kb of 3′ end sequence for each of the selected cDNAs was sequenced from each respective BAC clone, in order to amplify terminator sequences via PCR. For each PCR, a Sacl site (GAGCTC) was introduced by the 5′ end sense primer and an EcoRI site (GAATTC) was introduced by the 3′ antisense primer. Hence, primers PSO323364Sac and PSO323364Eco (SEQ ID NO:40 and SEQ ID NO:41, respectively) were used to amplify the MYB2 terminator; primers PSO400362Sac and PSO400362Eco (SEQ ID NO:42 and SEQ ID NO:43, respectively) were used to amplify the KTI1 terminator; primers PSO332986Sac and PSO332986Eco (SEQ ID NO:44 and SEQ ID NO:45, respectively) were used to amplify the PIP1 terminator; primers PSO333268Sac and PSO333268Eco (SEQ ID NO:46 and SEQ ID NO:47, respectively) were used to amplify the EF1A2 terminator; and primers PSO333209Sac and PSO333209Eco (SEQ ID NO:48 and SEQ ID NO:49, respectively) were used to amplify the MTH1 terminator. PCR cycle conditions were 94° C. for 4 minutes; 35 cycles of 94° C. for 30 seconds, 60° C. for 1 minute, and 68° C. for 1 minute; and a final 68° C. for 5 minutes before holding at 4° C. using the Platinum high fidelity Taq DNA polymerase (Invitrogen). PCR reactions were resolved using agarose gel electrophoresis to identify DNA bands representing the ˜0.5 Kb terminators.

Each PCR amplified a terminator DNA fragment. The MYB2 terminator fragment was digested with Sacl and EcoRI and then ligated to the corresponding Sacl and EcoRI sites of Gateway entry vector QC315 (FIG. 2A and SEQ ID NO:32), to create an intermediate construct QC327 (FIG. 2B and SEQ ID NO:33). Several clones of QC327 were sequenced, and the clone with the correct MYB2 terminator sequence (SEQ ID NO:1) was selected. In construct QC327, the MYB2 terminator was placed downstream of the fluorescent reporter gene ZS-YELLOW N1 (YFP), which was under the control of a soybean ubiquitin promoter GM-UBQ. The YFP expression cassette was then linked to a soybean transformation selectable marker gene cassette SAMS:HRA in construct QC324i (FIG. 2C and SEQ ID NO:34) by LR clonase-mediated DNA recombination between the attL1 and attL2 recombination sites (SEQ ID NO:87 and SEQ ID NO:88, respectively) in QC327 and the attR1 and attR2 recombination sites (SEQ ID NO:89 and SEQ ID NO:90, respectively) in QC324i (Invitrogen), to create the final transformation ready construct QC339 (FIG. 2D and SEQ ID NO:35). Two 21 bp recombination sites attB1 and attB2 (SEQ ID NO:91 and SEQ ID NO:92, respectively) were created, resulting from DNA recombination between attL1 and attR2 and from DNA recombination between attL2 and attR2, respectively. Similarly, the other four terminators, KTI1 (SEQ ID NO:2), PIP1 (SEQ ID NO:3), EF1A2 (SEQ ID NO:4), and MTH1 (SEQ ID NO:5), were cloned into the final transformation ready constructs, QC340, QC350, QC351, and QC352, respectively (FIG. 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D). Complete sequences of constructs QC339, QC340, QC350, QC351, and QC352 are listed as SEQ ID NO:35, SEQ ID NO:36, SEQ ID NO:37, SEQ ID NO:38, and SEQ ID NO:39, respectively.

Example 3 Transformation of Soybean with the Terminator Constructs

Each of the terminator constructs, QC339, QC340, QC350, QC351, and QC352, contained a DNA fragment that included the respective UBQ:YFP:terminator cassette linked to a SAMS:HRA expression cassette. For each construct, the DNA fragment was isolated by digestion with Ascl, separated from the vector backbone by agarose gel electrophoresis, and gel-purified using a DNA gel extraction kit (Qiagen, Valencia, Calif.). Each of the purified DNA fragments was transformed into the soybean cultivar “Jack” by particle gun bombardment (Klein et al., Nature 327:70-73 (1987); U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,050), as described in detail below, to study the functions of each terminator in stably transformed soybean plants.

The same methodology as outlined above for the UBQ:YFP:terminator-SAMS:HRA expression cassette construction and transformation can be used with other heterologous nucleic acid sequences encoding for example a reporter protein, a selection marker, a protein conferring disease resistance, a protein conferring herbicide resistance, a protein conferring insect resistance, a protein involved in carbohydrate metabolism, a protein involved in fatty acid metabolism, a protein involved in amino acid metabolism, a protein involved in plant development, a protein involved in plant growth regulation, a protein involved in yield improvement, a protein involved in drought resistance, a protein involved in cold resistance, a protein involved in heat resistance, and a protein involved in salt resistance, all in plants.

Soybean somatic embryos from the Jack cultivar were induced as follows. Cotyledons (˜3 mm in length) were dissected from surface sterilized, immature seeds and were cultured for 6-10 weeks in the light at 26° C. on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media containing 0.7% agar and supplemented with 10 mg/ml 2,4-D. Globular stage somatic embryos, which produced secondary embryos, were excised, placed into flasks containing liquid MS medium supplemented with 2,4-D (10 mg/ml), and cultured in the light on a rotary shaker. After repeated selection for clusters of somatic embryos that multiplied as early, globular staged embryos, the soybean embryogenic suspension cultures were maintained in 35 ml liquid media on a rotary shaker, 150 rpm, at 26° C. with fluorescent lights on a 16:8 hour day/night schedule. Cultures were subcultured every two weeks by inoculating approximately 35 mg of tissue into 35 ml of the same fresh liquid MS medium.

Soybean embryogenic suspension cultures were then transformed by the method of particle gun bombardment using a DuPont Biolistic™ PDS1000/HE instrument (helium retrofit) (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules, Calif.). To 50 μl of a 60 mg/ml 1.0 mm gold particle suspension were added (in order): 30 μl of 10 ng/μl QC339 DNA fragment UBQ:YFP:MYB2-SAMS:HRA, QC340 DNA fragment UBQ:YFP:KTI1-SAMS-HRA, QC350 DNA fragment UBQ:YFP:PIP1-SAMS-HRA, QC351 DNA fragment UBQ:YFP:EF1A2-SAMS-HRA, or QC352 DNA fragment UBQ:YFP:MTH1-SAMS-HRA; 20 μl of 0.1 M spermidine; and 25 μl of 5 M CaCl₂. The particle preparation was then agitated for 3 minutes and spun in a centrifuge for 10 seconds, and the supernatant was removed. The DNA-coated particles were then washed once in 400 μl 100% ethanol and resuspended in 45 μl of 100% ethanol. The DNA/particle suspension was sonicated three times for one second each. 5 μl of the DNA-coated gold particles was then loaded on each macro carrier disk.

Approximately 300-400 mg of a two-week-old suspension culture was placed in an empty 60×15 mm Petri dish, and the residual liquid removed from the tissue with a pipette. For each transformation experiment, approximately 5 to 10 plates of tissue were bombarded. Membrane rupture pressure was set at 1100 psi, and the chamber was evacuated to a vacuum of 28 inches mercury. The tissue was placed approximately 3.5 inches away from the retaining screen and bombarded once. Following bombardment, the tissue was divided in half and placed back into liquid media and cultured as described above.

Five to seven days post bombardment, the liquid media was exchanged with fresh media containing 100 ng/ml chlorsulfuron, the selection agent. The selective media was refreshed weekly. Seven to eight weeks post bombardment, green, transformed tissue was observed growing from untransformed, necrotic embryogenic clusters. Isolated green tissue was removed and inoculated into individual flasks to generate new, clonally propagated, transformed embryogenic suspension cultures. Each clonally propagated culture was treated as an independent transformation event and subcultured in the same liquid MS media supplemented with 2,4-D (10 mg/ml) and 100 ng/ml chlorsulfuron selection agent to increase mass. The embryogenic suspension cultures were then transferred to solid agar MS media plates without 2,4-D supplement to allow somatic embryos to develop. A sample of each event was collected at this stage for quantitative PCR analysis.

Cotyledon stage somatic embryos were dried-down (by transferring them into an empty small Petri dish that was seated on top of a 10 cm Petri dish containing some agar gel to allow slow dry down) to mimic the last stages of soybean seed development. Dried-down embryos were placed on germination solid media, and transgenic soybean plantlets were regenerated. The transgenic plants were then transferred to soil and maintained in growth chambers for seed production.

During the transformation, genomic DNA was extracted from somatic embryo samples and analyzed by quantitative PCR using the 7500 real time PCR system (Applied Biosystems) with gene-specific primers and FAM-labeled fluorescence probes to check copy numbers of both the UBQ:YFP:terminator expression cassette and the SAMS:HRA expression cassette. The qPCR analysis was done in duplex reactions with a heat shock protein (HSP) gene as the endogenous control and a transgenic DNA sample with a known single copy of SAMS:HRA or YFP transgene as the calibrator using the relative quantification methodology (Applied Biosystems). The endogenous control HSP probe (SEQ ID NO:69) was labeled with VIC, and the YFP and SAMS probes (SEQ ID NO:66 and SEQ ID NO:63, respectively) were labeled with FAM for the simultaneous detection of both fluorescent probes (Applied Biosystems). Gene cassette-specific primers used in the qPCR were: SAMS48-F and SAMS-134R (SEQ ID NO:62 and SEQ ID NO:64, respectively) for SAMS:HRA, YFP-67F and YFP-130R (SEQ ID NO:65 and SEQ ID NO:67, respectively) for YFP, and HSP-F1 and HSP-R1 (SEQ ID NO:68 and SEQ ID NO:70, respectively) for the endogenous control gene HSP.

Only transgenic soybean events containing 1 or 2 copies of both the SAMS:HRA expression cassette and the UBQ:YFP expression cassette were selected for further gene expression evaluation and seed production (see Table 2). Events negative for YFP qPCR or with more than 2 copies for the SAMS:HRA qPCR were not advanced. Four events from each terminator construct were selected for RT-PCR analysis of gene expression, mRNA polyadenylation, and transcription termination, as described in EXAMPLES 5, 6, and 7. YFP expressions are described in detail in EXAMPLE 4 and are also summarized in Table 2.

TABLE 2 Relative transgene copy numbers and YFP expression of terminator constructs in transgenic soybeans YFP SAMS Terminator Event ID YFP qPCR qPCR MYB2 4906.1.1 + 0.0 0.0 MYB2 4906.1.2 + 1.1 0.5 MYB2 4906.1.3 + 0.4 0.2 MYB2 4906.1.4 + 0.6 0.4 MYB2 4906.1.8 + 0.1 0.1 MYB2 4906.1.9 + 0.7 1.0 MYB2 4906.2.1 + 0.5 0.5 MYB2 4906.2.2 + 0.8 0.3 MYB2 4906.2.4 + 0.1 0.1 MYB2 4906.2.5 + 0.2 0.1 MYB2 4906.6.2 + 1.6 1.5 MYB2 4906.7.1 + 1.1 0.5 MYB2 4906.8.1 + 1.5 1.6 MYB2 4906.8.2 + 0.8 0.6 MYB2 4906.8.5 + 0.1 0.0 MYB2 4906.8.7 + 1.7 1.6 KTI1 4909.1.1 + 1.3 1.4 KTI1 4909.1.2 + 1.2 1.7 KTI1 4909.2.1 + 1.2 1.7 KTI1 4909.2.2 + 0.9 1.1 KTI1 4909.2.4 + 1.0 1.5 KTI1 4909.4.2 + 1.0 1.3 KTI1 4909.5.1 + 1.1 1.0 KTI1 4909.7.1 + 1.3 1.4 KTI1 4909.7.2 + 1.2 1.9 KTI1 4909.8.1 + 1.4 1.8 KTI1 4909.8.2 + 1.2 1.3 KTI1 4909.8.3 + 1.1 1.0 KTI1 4909.8.4 + 1.0 1.1 KTI1 4909.8.5 + 0.8 1.2 PIP1 4952.1.2 + 1.6 1.1 PIP1 4952.2.1 + 1.6 1.3 PIP1 4952.3.1 + 3.3 1.6 PIP1 4952.4.2 + 2.2 2.2 PIP1 4952.4.4 + 1.0 0.8 PIP1 4952.7.1 + 1.2 1.7 PIP1 4952.7.2 + 1.3 1.0 PIP1 4952.3.3 + 1.2 1.6 PIP1 4952.3.5 + 1.6 0.7 PIP1 4952.4.5 + 2.9 2.0 PIP1 4952.4.6 + 3.5 0.6 PIP1 4952.4.7 + 3.7 1.5 PIP1 4952.4.10 + 0.9 0.7 PIP1 4952.7.3 + 3.0 1.2 PIP1 4952.7.4 + 2.9 1.5 PIP1 4952.7.5 + 1.0 0.7 EF1A2 4953.1.2 + 1.0 1.0 EF1A2 4953.1.5 + 1.1 0.6 EF1A2 4953.2.2 + 1.0 1.0 EF1A2 4953.4.7 + 1.0 1.4 EF1A2 4953.4.9 + 0.9 0.9 EF1A2 4953.5.3 + 1.0 0.7 EF1A2 4953.5.4 + 0.9 0.6 EF1A2 4953.5.5 + 0.9 0.9 EF1A2 4953.5.6 + 0.9 1.4 EF1A2 4953.6.1 + 1.0 1.3 EF1A2 4953.6.2 + 0.8 0.9 EF1A2 4953.6.6 + 0.9 1.0 EF1A2 4953.6.10 + 0.9 1.0 EF1A2 4953.7.1 + 0.9 0.7 EF1A2 4953.7.3 + 0.9 0.8 EF1A2 4953.8.1 + 1.1 1.0 EF1A2 4953.8.2 + 1.1 0.9 MTH1 5238.8.1 + 0.9 0.5 MTH1 5238.8.2 + 1.7 0.5 MTH1 5238.8.4 + 1.1 0.9 MTH1 5238.2.1 + 1.1 1.4 MTH1 5238.2.4 + 2.0 1.1 MTH1 5238.2.5 + 1.2 0.5 MTH1 5238.2.6 + 1.0 0.8 MTH1 5238.2.8 + 1.0 0.7 MTH1 5238.3.2 + 1.3 1.3 MTH1 5238.3.3 + 1.0 0.9 MTH1 5238.7.1 + 1.3 0.8 MTH1 5238.8.6 + 1.3 0.7 MTH1 5238.8.7 + 1.0 0.9 MTH1 5238.7.10 + 1.6 0.7 MTH1 5238.7.12 + 0.6 0.9 MTH1 5238.7.13 + 1.3 0.6

Example 4 YFP Expression in Stable Transgenic Soybeans

YFP gene expression was tested at different stages of transgenic plant development for yellow fluorescence emission under a Leica MZFLIII stereo microscope equipped with appropriate fluorescent light filters. Yellow fluorescence was detected early on during somatic embryo development and throughout all stages of transgenic plant development in all tissues tested (including somatic embryos, leaf, stem, root, flower, pod, and seed) for all five terminator constructs, QC339, QC340, QC350, QC351, and QC352. Since all five terminators were tested in the context of the same soybean ubiquitin promoter GM-UBQ, the reporter expression patterns and strengths were similar among the five constructs suggesting that the terminators did not change the overall expression of the promoter. The five terminators could not be distinguished from each other in terms of reporter gene expression. Examples of YFP expression in flower, leaf, stem, root, and pod/seed are described below and shown in FIG. 4 (for the MYB2 terminator construct QC339, FIG. 4A-E; for the KTI1 terminator construct QC340, FIG. 4F-J; for the PIP1 terminator construct QC350, FIG. 4K-O; for the EF1A2 terminator construct QC351, FIG. 4P-T; and for the MTH1 terminator construct QC352, FIG. 4U-Y).

During the tissue culture stages of transgenic plant regeneration, YFP expression was detected in globular, torpedo, fully developed, and dried down somatic embryos. Negative control embryos emitted weak red color, as did the negative sectors of positive embryo clusters, due to autofluorescence from the chlorophyll contained in green tissues, including somatic embryos. Negative controls for other green tissues, such as leaf or stem, were also red, and negative controls for white tissues, such as root and flower petal, were dark yellowish under the YFP light filter. When transgenic plantlets were regenerated, YFP expression was detected in leaf, stem, and root, and the expression was retained to mature plants. Fluorescence in leaflets collected from plantlets seemed stronger than in leaves collected from mature plants, probably due in part to the weak masking effect of less chlorophyll on yellow fluorescence in young leaves. Fluorescence was concentrated in the vascular bundles in stems and roots. Strong yellow fluorescence was unanimously detected in reproductive organs such as flowers and developing pods and seeds, including seed coats and embryos, at all stages. In conclusion, each of the five novel terminators gave constitutive YFP expression under the control of the soybean ubiquitin promoter.

Example 5 Gene Expression Evaluation by RT-PCR

To evaluate the functions of the terminators, total RNA was extracted from selected transgenic plantlets using the Trizol reagent following the protocol recommended by the manufacturer (Invitrogen). RNA samples were treated with RNase-free DNase I (Invitrogen) to get rid of any potential genomic DNA contamination and checked by RT-PCR with primers SAMS-L (SEQ ID NO:53) and SAMS-L2 (SEQ ID NO:54), which are specific to an endogenous S-adenosylmethionine synthetase gene. Since the SAMS-L primer is specific to the upstream of a 5′UTR intron of the SAMS gene and the SAMS-L2 primer is specific to the coding region downstream of the same intron, any SAMS genomic DNA will produce a 967 bp PCR band, while the SAMS cDNA will produce a 376 bp RT-PCR band.

A typical 25 μl RT-PCR reaction was set up with 100 ng total RNA, 200 nM sense primer, 200 nM antisense primer, and 12.5 μl 2× one-step RT-PCR reaction mix (Invitrogen). The RT-PCR program included 30 minutes at 50° C. for the first strand cDNA synthesis; 3 minutes at 94° C. for the initial denaturing; and 35 cycles of 30 seconds at 94° C., 1 minute at 60° C., and 1 minute at 72° C. A final incubation at 72° C. for 5 minutes was included before holding at 4° C. RT-PCR products were resolved in 1% agarose gels by electrophoresis. All RNA samples were checked by this assay and were determined to be genomic DNA-free as shown in FIG. 6A, where no 967 bp band, specific to genomic DNA, was amplified from any of the RNA samples. Since the SAMS-L primer is at the far 5′ end of the SAMS gene, the successful amplification of the 376 bp RT-PCR band from all the RNA samples also confirmed that each of the RNA sequences was full-length. A similar check was also done with primers UBQ-S2 (SEQ ID NO:61) and YFP-A (SEQ ID NO:60), which were specific to the UBQ:YFP transgene, to further confirm that the RNAs were full-length and free of genomic DNA contamination.

In addition to the UBQ-S2/YFP-A primers used to check the transgene transcripts, other transgene-specific primers were designed for different analytical purposes (FIG. 5). To check the UBQ:YFP transgene expression, four independent events selected from each of the five terminator transformations were analyzed by RT-PCR, as described above, with primers YFP-1 (SEQ ID NO:57) and YFP-2 (SEQ ID NO:58). For each terminator transformation, all four samples produced the expected YFP band with the same intensity, indicating that all of the tested transgenic events expressed the YFP transgene similarly (FIG. 6B).

Example 6 Evaluation of Transgene Transcription Termination

The ability of the terminators to terminate RNA transcription was analyzed by RT-PCR using the sense primer YFP-3 (SEQ ID NO:59), which is specific to the YFP gene, and an antisense primer specific to a region downstream from and beyond the terminator in the transgene construct. Since all five terminator constructs have the same configuration, the same antisense primers, 3UTR-3 (SEQ ID NO:52), SAMS-A1 (SEQ ID NO:55), and SAMS-A2 (SEQ ID NO:56), could be used to analyze the progressive termination of transcripts for all five terminators, MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 (FIG. 5). If RNA transcription was terminated 100% by the terminator, no RT-PCR band would be detected with any of the primer set. If the transcription termination was not 100% effective and some RNA transcripts read through and beyond the terminator region, a band of expected size would be amplified by the RT-PCR with each respective primer set.

Most of the transgenic events showed RNA transcription read through bands with all three primer sets, YFP-3/3UTR-3, YFP-3/SAMS-A1, and YFP-3/SAMS-A2 (FIG. 7). The RT-PCR with primers YFP-3/3UTR-3 also amplified an approximately 400 bp non-specific band from wild type RNA in addition to the specific RT-PCR bands from the transgenic RNA templates (FIG. 7A). The larger transgene transcript-specific bands were amplified from each of the four samples of all five terminators MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1, except for the first MYB2 sample. An intense smaller band was amplified for this sample suggesting that the transgene probably contained a deletion in the terminator region in this MYB2 event. Indeed, a 3′ UTR sequence recovered from this event contained a 362 bp deletion in the middle of the MYB2 terminator (EXAMPLE 8). A transgene read through-specific band slightly larger than the wild type non-specific band was also amplified from the four transgenic events carrying a control transgene operably linked to the potato PIN2 terminator. Expected sizes of the transgene-specific bands are given in FIG. 7 adjacent to the terminator names. The results indicated that none of the terminators, including the commonly used PIN2, stopped RNA transcription completely. Instead, transcription read-through beyond the 3′ end of the terminators occurred frequently, though at various levels, as indicated by the different intensities of the bands.

Since the 3UTR-3 antisense primer is only 38 bp (including the 23 bp 3UTR-3 primer sequence) from the EcoRI site at the 3′ end of all the terminators, the extent of transcription read-through could be further evaluated using two more sets of primers further downstream of the terminator. The antisense primer SAMS-A1 used in the second RT-PCR is 248 bp downstream of the 3UTR-3 primer used in the first RT-PCR, or 286 bp downstream of the 3′ end (the EcoRI cloning site) of all the terminators. The antisense primer SAMS-A2 used in the third RT-PCR is 174 bp downstream of the SAMS-A1 primer, or 422 bp downstream of the 3UTR-3 primer, or 460 bp downstream of the terminator's 3′ end. The second set of primers, YFP-3/SAMS-A1, amplified RT-PCR bands from all the KTI1, PIP1, and EF1A2 samples, although the second EF1A2 sample had a very faint band. The number 4 MYB2 sample, the number 2 MTH1 sample, and all four PIN2 samples produced faint bands of the expected sizes. The first MYB2 samples again produced an intense but smaller band. (FIG. 7B). The third set of primers, YFP-3/SAMS-A2, amplified similar bands, although there were slight changes in intensity for some of the bands, as compared to the second RT-PCR (FIG. 7C). Some bands became weaker and some bands became stronger, presumably due to PCR variations. The results indicated that RNA transcription did not terminate at one site, with some RNA transcripts extending as far as 460 bp or longer downstream of the 3′ end of the tested terminator. Transcription read-through was less severe in terminators MYB2, MTH1, and PIN2, as compared to terminators PIP1, KTI1, and EF1A2.

To check the percentage of transcription read through, the relative quantity of the YFP transcripts estimated by qRT-PCR was compared to that of the SAMS promoter (FIG. 5). The sense primer YFP-139F (SEQ ID NO:74), probe YFP-160T (SEQ ID NO:75), and antisense primer YFP-195R (SEQ ID NO:76), all of which are specific to the 3′ end of the YFP coding region, were used for YFP-specific qRT-PCR. The qRT-PCR specific to the SAMS promoter designed to locate further downstream of the terminators used sense primer SamsPro-F (SEQ ID NO:71), probe SamsPro-T (SEQ ID NO:72), and antisense primer SamsPro-R (SEQ ID NO:73). The antisense primer SamsPro-R is 553 bp downstream of the 3UTR-3 primer or 591 bp downstream of the 3′ end EcoRI site of the terminators. The endogenous ATP sulfurylase gene, detected with sense primer ATPS-87F (SEQ ID NO:20), probe ATPS-117T (SEQ ID NO:93), and antisense primer ATPS-161R (SEQ ID NO:21), was used as the endogenous control for both the YFP and SAMS promoter qRT-PCR. The genomic DNA of a transgenic soybean event containing one copy of both YFP and SAMS promoter was used as a calibrator. The relative quantification (RQ) of YFP or SAMS promoter was calculated using the 7500 system SDS software (Applied Biosystems). RNA transcription read through frequency was expressed as the percentage of the expression of SAMS promoter to that of YFP for each tested sample. Four independent transgenic events were analyzed for each of the five terminators. Transcription read through was detected in all the events though most of them were less than 1% as listed in the last column of Table 3.

TABLE 3 Relative quantification of RNA transcription read through by qRT-PCR RNA SamsPro- SamsPro/ Terminator source Event YFP-RQ RQ YFP MYB2 Embryo 4906.1.2 0.188 0.008 4.26% Embryo 4906.5.3 1.13 0.005 0.44% Embryo 4906.6.1 0.566 1.94E−04 0.03% Embryo 4906.8.1 1.144 2.79E−04 0.02% KTI1 Leaf 4909.2.4.2 11.05 0.037 0.33% Leaf 4909.7.1.2 5.25 0.025 0.48% Leaf 4909.8.2.2 7.166 1.31 18.28% Leaf 4909.8.3.1 7.499 0.029 0.39% PIP1 Plantlet 4952.3.1 19.873 0.081 0.41% Plantlet 4952.4.4 6.511 0.001 0.02% Plantlet 4952.4.10 4.881 0.02 0.41% Plantlet 4952.7.3 15.528 0.038 0.24% EF1A2 Embryo 4953.1.1 0.452 0.003 0.66% Embryo 4953.2.1 0.009 2.59E−04 2.88% Embryo 4953.4.4 0.757 0.007 0.92% Embryo 4953.5.1 0.685 0.012 1.75% MTH1 Plantlet 5238.2.12 25.548 0.018 0.07% Plantlet 5238.6.8 13.572 0.025 0.18% Plantlet 5238.7.11 9.022 0.023 0.25% Plantlet 5238.7.12 6.943 0.009 0.13%

Example 7 Evaluation of Endogenous Gene Transcription Termination

Though it is believed that transcription termination by bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP) occurs at sequences coding for a GC-rich RNA hairpin followed by a U-rich tract (Gusarov and Nudler, Mol. Cell 3:495-504 (1999), Larson et al., Cell 132:971-982 (2008)), little is known about transcription termination in plants. To check if transcription read through observed in transgenes is also common for endogenous genes, primers were designed to check RNA transcripts of each of the five endogenous genes corresponding to the five terminators. The first set of primers, specific to normal mature mRNA, consisted of a sense primer specific to the coding region and an antisense primer specific to the 3UTR upstream of the poly (A). An RT-PCR band of a specific size would be expected from soybean wild type total RNA and from genomic DNA positive control. The second set of primers, specific to read through transcripts or precursor mRNA, consisted of the same sense primer specific to the coding region and an antisense primer specific to a region approximately 100-300 bp downstream of the poly (A). If transcription read through did occur, a larger band would be expected from total RNA by RT-PCR and from genomic DNA by PCR. If transcription read through did not occur, only the genomic DNA templates would produce the larger PCR band. The RNA templates would not produce the larger band if RNA transcripts did not extend 100-300 bp beyond the polyadenylation site.

RT-PCR analysis was done on wild type RNA extracted from soybean plantlets for each of the five terminators MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 (FIG. 8A). The RNA used in the assays had been checked to be free of any genomic DNA contamination and the band detected in the RNA samples had to come from RNA by RT-PCR. Genomic DNA was included as positive control, and water was used as a no template control for each set of primers. The RT-PCR-1 used normal mRNA-specific primer sets, and the RT-PCR-2 used transcription read-through specific primer sets (FIG. 8A). The normal mRNA-specific primer sets used in RT-PCR-1 were: PSO323364S1/PSO323364R1 (SEQ ID NO:77/SEQ ID NO:78), PSO400362S1/PSO400362R1 (SEQ ID NO:79/SEQ ID NO:80), PSO332982F/PSO332986JK-A (SEQ ID NO:81/SEQ ID NO:82), PSO333268F/PSO333268R (SEQ ID NO:83/SEQ ID NO:84), and PSO333209F/PSO333209JK-A (SEQ ID NO:85/SEQ ID NO:86), respectively, for the MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 terminators. The transcription read-through specific primer sets used in RT-PCR-2 were PSO323364S1/PSO323364Eco (SEQ ID NO:77/SEQ ID NO:41), PSO400362S1/PSO400362Eco (SEQ ID NO:79/SEQ ID NO:43), PSO332982F/PSO332986Eco (SEQ ID NO:81/SEQ ID NO:45), PSO333268F/PSO333268Eco (SEQ ID NO:83/SEQ ID NO:47), and PSO333209F/PSO333209Eco (SEQ ID NO:85/SEQ ID NO:49), respectively, for the MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 terminators.

RT-PCR bands were detected with both the mRNA specific RT-PCR-1 and the transcription read-through specific RT-PCR-2 from the RNA samples for PSO333209 (MTH1), PSO333268 (EF1A2), and PSO332986 (PIP1). As expected, the RT-PCR-2 bands are larger than the corresponding RT-PCR-1 bands. Bands of the same sizes were detected in the genomic DNA positive controls for all the primer sets (FIG. 8A). Since PSO323364 (MYB2) is a flower-specific gene and PSO400362 (KTI1) is an embryo-specific gene, no RT-PCR band was amplified with RT-PCR-1 or RT-PCR-2 from the plantlet RNA samples for these two genes, while both amplified specific PCR bands from the genomic DNA positive controls (FIG. 8A). Flower RNA and embryo RNA had to be used accordingly in order to check transcription read-through for these two tissue-specific genes (FIG. 8B). RT-PCR bands were amplified by both RT-PCR-1 and RT-PCR-2 for PSO323364 (MYB2) from the flower RNA but not from the seed RNA, while for gene PSO400362 (KTI1), from the seed RNA but not from the flower RNA (FIG. 8B). Both the flower and seed RNA were also checked by RT-PCR with primers SAMS-L/SAMS-L2 (SEQ ID NO:53/SEQ ID NO:54) to be free of genomic DNA contamination (FIG. 8B). Since the antisense primer used in each RT-PCR-2 was 222 bp, 296 bp, 194 bp, 87 bp, and 195 bp from the polyadenylation site (see SEQ ID NO:6, 7, 8, 9, and 10), respectively, for genes PSO323364 (MYB2), PSO400362 (KTI1), PSO332986 (PIP1), PSO333268 (EF1A2), and PSO333209 (MTH1), the results confirmed that RNA transcription did not terminate at the corresponding position downstream of the polyadenylation site for each of the five endogenous genes. The terminators behaved similarly in their naturally endogenous genes as when they were in transgenic genes described in EXAMPLE 6.

Example 8 Cloning and Sequencing the 3′ UTRs of Transgenes

Transgenic 3′ UTRs were cloned by RT-PCR from the same four events for each of the MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1 terminators. First strand cDNA was made from each RNA sample with SuperScript III reverse transcriptase (Invitrogen), using the oligo dT primer 3UTR-1 (SEQ ID NO:50). The 3′ UTR, plus the 3′ part of the YFP coding region of each transgene, was amplified by PCR with primer set YFP-3/3UTR-2 (SEQ ID NO:59/SEQ ID NO:51). A single band was amplified for all but the four MYB2 samples and one EF1A2 sample (FIG. 9). The PCR bands were then cloned into TOPO pCR2.1 vector by TA cloning (Invitrogen). Plasmid DNA was obtained from each clone, using Qiagen plasmid mini kits, and the DNA was sequenced with M13For and M13Rev primers specific to the TOPO pCR2.1 vector. Sequences were analyzed using the ContigExpress and AlignX programs in Vector NTI suites (Invitrogen).

As summarized in Table 4, 19 specific 3′ UTR sequences representing 5 different variants were recovered from the MYB2 events. The lengths of the five variants, starting from the 5′ Sacl site of the MYB2 terminator, are 143 bp, 198 bp, 244 bp, 341 bp, and 348 bp. In total, there were four 143 bp sequences, ten 198 bp sequences, one 244 bp sequence, two 341 bp sequences, and two 348 bp sequences. Two identical 3′ UTR sequences (not listed in the table) cloned from the first MYB2 event had the middle 362 bp of the MYB2 terminator deleted and the polyadenylation site was outside the terminator, i.e., 43 bp downstream of the 3UTR-3 primer or 81 bp downstream of the 3′ end (the EcoRI site) of the terminator. The observation is consistent with the smaller PCR bands amplified for the first MYB2 event (FIG. 7A, B, C). The middle deletion in the terminator made RNA transcription read through more severe in this event than in the others since this event gave much stronger bands for all three sets of primers used for the transcription read through check, as described in EXAMPLE 6.

Thirteen 3′ UTR sequences representing 5 variants were recovered from the KTI1 events; eleven 3′ UTR sequences representing only 2 variants were recovered from the PIP1 events; twelve sequences representing 2 variants were recovered from the EF1A2 events, and twenty five sequences representing 13 variants were recovered from the MTH1 events. It was obvious that each terminator could have multiple polyadenylation sites. Since only limited numbers of clones were sequenced for each terminator, it was reasonable to believe that more polyadenylation sites could be identified, especially for the MTH1, KTI1, and MYB2 terminators, since some of their 3′ UTR variants were represented by only single sequences in Table 4.

TABLE 4 Summary of transgenic 3′ UTR sequence analysis Terminator MYB2 KTI1 PIP1 EF1A2 MTH1 Gene PSO323364 PSO400362 PSO332986 PSO333268 PSO333209 Native 3′ 305 243 309 345 259 UTR Construct QC339 QC340 QC350 QC351 QC352 Full length 540 554 518 445 462 Transgene 3′ UTR  19  13  11  12  25 sequence Transgene 3′ UTR  5  5  2  2  13 variants Transgene 143(4), 169(1), 319(7), 351(10), 213(1), 3′ UTR 198(10), 179(1), 337(4) 369(2) 219(1), variants 244(1), 202(6), 240(1), lengths and 341(2), 242(3), 259(8), frequency 348(2) 250(2), 263(1), 275(1), 277(1), 298(3), 318(1), 324(3), 329(1), 343(2), 367(1)

Example 9 Identification and Cloning of Longer Versions of the Terminators

As described in EXAMPLE 7, transcription read through was detected in all five endogenous genes, PSO323364, PSO400362, PSO332986, PSO333268, and PSO333209, corresponding to terminators MYB2, KTI1, PIP1, EF1A2, and MTH1, respectively (FIG. 8). To check if the observed transcription read through of endogenous genes would stop and at what point, six more progressively downstream reverse primers were designed for each of the five endogenous genes based on their genomic DNA sequences to do more RT-PCR analyses. The relative positions of the single forward primer PSO323364S1 (SEQ ID NO:77) and seven reverse primers PSO323364Eco (SEQ ID NO:41), PSO323364UTR2 (SEQ ID NO:94), PSO323364UTR3 (SEQ ID NO:95), PSO323364UTR4 (SEQ ID NO:96), PSO323364UTR5 (SEQ ID NO:97), PSO323364UTR6 (SEQ ID NO:98), and PSO323364UTR7 (SEQ ID NO:99) specific to the RNA transcript and the genomic DNA of gene PSO323364 are illustrated in FIG. 10 as an example. RT-PCR analyses using the above seven sets of primers were labeled in the same order, as RT-PCR 1, RT-PCR 2, RT-PCR 3, RT-PCR 4, RT-PCR 5, RT-PCR 6, and RT-PCR 7 in FIG. 11.

Similarly, primers were designed and RT-PCR was performed for the other four endogenous genes, PSO400362, PSO332986, PSO333268, and PSO333209. Forward primer PSO400362S1 (SEQ ID NO:79) and seven reverse primers PSO400362Eco (SEQ ID NO:43), PSO400362UTR2 (SEQ ID NO:100), PSO400362UTR3 (SEQ ID NO:101), PSO400362UTR4 (SEQ ID NO:102), PSO400362UTR5 (SEQ ID NO:103), PSO400362UTR6 (SEQ ID NO:104), and PSO400362UTR7 (SEQ ID NO:105) were used for the seven PSO400362-specific RT-PCR analyses (FIG. 11). Forward primer PSO332982F (SEQ ID NO:81) and seven reverse primers PSO332986Eco (SEQ ID NO:45), PSO332986UTR2 (SEQ ID NO:106), PSO332986UTR3 (SEQ ID NO:107), PSO332986UTR4 (SEQ ID NO:108), PSO332986UTR5 (SEQ ID NO:109), PSO332986UTR6 (SEQ ID NO:110), and PSO332986UTR7 (SEQ ID NO:111) were used for the seven PSO332986-specific RT-PCR analyses (FIG. 11). Forward primer PSO333268F (SEQ ID NO:83) and seven reverse primers PSO333268Eco (SEQ ID NO:47), PSO333268UTR2 (SEQ ID NO:112), PSO333268UTR3 (SEQ ID NO:113), PSO333268UTR4 (SEQ ID NO:114), PSO333268UTR5 (SEQ ID NO:115), PSO333268UTR6 (SEQ ID NO:116), and PSO333268UTR7 (SEQ ID NO:117) were used for the seven PSO333268-specific RT-PCR analyses (FIG. 11). Forward primer PSO333209F (SEQ ID NO:85) and seven reverse primers PSO333209Eco (SEQ ID NO:49), PSO333209UTR2 (SEQ ID NO:118), PSO333209UTR3 (SEQ ID NO:119), PSO333209UTR4 (SEQ ID NO:120), PSO333209UTR5 (SEQ ID NO:121), PSO333209UTR6 (SEQ ID NO:122), and PSO333209UTR7 (SEQ ID NO:123) were used for the seven PSO333209-specific RT-PCR analyses (FIG. 11).

RT-PCR analyses were done on the same wild type soybean flower RNA for gene PSO322264 (MYB2), seed RNA for PSO400362 (KTI1), or plantlet RNA for genes PSO332986 (PIP1), PSO333268 (EF1A2), and PSO333209 (MTH1), as described in EXAMPLE 7. The RNA used in the assays had been checked to be free of any genomic DNA contamination and the band detected in the RNA samples had to come from RNA by RT-PCR. Genomic DNA was included as positive control, and water was used as a no template control for each set of primers. The genomic DNA positive would always give a band as long as the RT-PCR worked. The RNA template would only give the same size band only when there was transcription read through downstream beyond the position of the reverse primer. If transcription read through stopped, only the genomic DNA templates would produce the predicted PCR band. The same size band was detected in both the RNA and genomic DNA template for each of the five endogenous genes until RT-PCR 5 (FIG. 11A, B). RT-PCR 5 reactions were repeated to normalize the RT-PCR reactions in FIG. 11A and in FIG. 11B that were done at different times. Probably due to limited specific targets in the RNA templates, RT-PCR 5 results were not completely consistent between the corresponding reactions in FIG. 11A and in FIG. 11B for genes PIP1 and EF1A2. No specific band was detected in RT-PCR 5 for MTH1 gene while a non-specific band was detected in the same reaction (FIG. 11A). Non-specific bands of different sizes were also detected in RT-PCR 6 for MYB2, PIP1, and EF1A2 genes. The primers failed for PIP1 gene RT-PCR 7 since no band was amplified either from the RNA template or the genomic DNA template (FIG. 11B). No RT-PCR band was amplified in RT-PCR 6 or RT-PCR 7 for any of the five genes indicating that transcription read through did not occur beyond the sixth reverse primer position.

The longer versions of the five terminators were amplified by PCR from wild type soybean “Jack” genomic DNA using the same forward primers described in EXAMPLE 2 and the UTR6 reverse primers. The MYB2L terminator (SEQ ID NO: 124) was amplified with primers PSO323364Sac (SEQ ID NO:40) and PSO323364UTR6 (SEQ ID NO:98). The KTI1L terminator (SEQ ID NO:125) was amplified with primers PSO400362Sac (SEQ ID NO:42) and PSO400362UTR6 (SEQ ID NO:104). The PIP1 L terminator (SEQ ID NO:126) was amplified with primers PSO332986Sac (SEQ ID NO:44) and PSO332986UTR6 (SEQ ID NO:110). The EF1A2L terminator (SEQ ID NO:127) was amplified with primers PSO333268Sac (SEQ ID NO:46) and PSO333268UTR6 (SEQ ID NO:116). The MTH1 L terminator (SEQ ID NO:128) was amplified with primers PSO333209Sac (SEQ ID NO:48) and PSO333209UTR6 (SEQ ID NO:122). PCR cycle conditions were 94° C. for 4 minutes; 35 cycles of 94° C. for 30 seconds, 60° C. for 1 minute, 68° C. for 2 minutes; and a final 68° C. for 5 minutes before holding at 4° C. using the Platinum high fidelity Taq DNA polymerase (Invitrogen). PCR reactions were resolved using agarose gel electrophoresis to identify DNA bands representing the approximately 1.5 Kb terminators. Each longer terminator was then cloned in TOPO TA cloning vector pCR2.1-TOPO (Invitrogen) and confirmed by sequencing multiple clones. The longer terminators are used in constructing transgenic gene cassettes wherever transcription read through needs to be limited. 

1. A recombinant DNA construct comprising a promoter, at least one heterologous nucleotide sequence, and an isolated polynucleotide comprising a nucleotide sequence comprising the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, or the complement thereof, wherein the promoter, heterologous nucleotide sequence, and isolated polynucleotide are operably linked.
 2. A vector comprising the recombinant DNA construct of claim
 1. 3. A cell comprising the recombinant DNA construct of claim
 1. 4. The cell of claim 3, wherein the cell is a plant cell.
 5. A transgenic plant having stably incorporated into its genome the recombinant DNA construct of claim
 1. 6. The transgenic plant of claim 5 wherein said plant is a dicot.
 7. The transgenic plant of claim 6 wherein said plant is soybean.
 8. Transgenic seed produced by the transgenic plant of claim
 6. 9. A method of expressing a coding sequence or a functional RNA in a plant comprising: a) introducing the recombinant DNA construct of claim 1 into the plant, wherein the at least one heterologous nucleotide sequence comprises the coding sequence or the functional RNA; b) growing the plant of step a); and c) selecting the plant displaying expression of the coding sequence or the functional RNA of the recombinant DNA construct.
 10. A method of transgenically altering a marketable plant trait, comprising: a) introducing the recombinant DNA construct of claim 1 into a plant cell; b) growing a fertile, mature plant from the plant cell resulting from step a); and c) selecting the plant expressing the at least one heterologous nucleotide sequence in at least one plant tissue based on the altered marketable trait.
 11. The method of claim 10 wherein the marketable plant trait is selected from the group consisting of: disease resistance, herbicide resistance, insect resistance, carbohydrate metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, plant development, plant growth regulation, yield improvement, drought resistance, cold resistance, heat resistance, and salt resistance. 